Van C. Mow

Van C. Mow (毛昭憲)

University of Miami, 2014
Born (1939-01-10)January 10, 1939
Chengdu, China
Residence United States
Nationality United States
Fields Biomedical Engineering
Institutions Columbia University
Alma mater Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Doctoral students P.A. Torzilli, Kyriacos A. Athanasiou, G.A. Arteshian, L.J. Soslowsky, Farshid Guilak, Lori Ann Setton, Daniel D.N. Sun, Christopher C.B. Wang
Known for Cartilage, Biomechanics

Van C. Mow (1939 b, Traditional Chinese: 毛昭憲), is one of the earliest researchers in the field of biomechanics. His father was Mow Pang Tzu, a high ranking general in the National Chinese Airforce, who was at the center of a widely covered embezzlement scandal that shook postwar US-Taiwan relationships. Van C. Mow has published over 315 full-length peer-reviewed, archival papers and book chapters, has delivered over 450 podium presentations at bioengineering meetings, and he has delivered over 450 invited seminars, keynote, plenary and distinguished named lectures in orthopaedic biomechanics. According to Google Scholar, his papers have been cited over 33,500 times, and he has an h-index of 100 as of October 5, 2015.[1] His work on the biphasic and triphasic theories for soft-hydrated and charged biological tissues, coauthored with W.M. Lai,[2] are two of the most highly cited biomechanics papers in the world.[3][4] Among Mow's many activities, he was the first PhD to be elected President of the Orthopaedic Research Society and from 2000 to 2011 was the founding chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University.

Biography

Mow's ancestral hometown is Ngai Tou, a suburb of Ningbo, in the county of Fenhua in Zhejiang Province. He was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in 1939 during the Sino-Japanese War, just prior of World War II, as 5th of 6 brothers. His father Mow Pang Tzu, (毛邦初), was a nephew of Mao Fumei, the first wife of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975.[5] Mow Pang Tzu graduated from the 3rd class of China’s Whampoa Military Academy in 1927 and later became Lt. General of the Republic of China Air Force.[6][7] In the late 30th and early 40th, General Mow was largely responsible for bringing Captain Chennault, the father of the Flying Tigers, to China.[8] In addition, he was instrumental in establishing the Burma-China airlift (typically referred to as "The Hump").[9][10][11] In 1942, General Mow was assigned to the U.S. to establish the Chinese Air Force Office in Washington, DC. In August 1945, he was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit by President Harry Truman, for "exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States from February 1943 to August 1945."[12] In 1949 his wife, Wong Ay Chuan, and five of his six sons (Van, Maurice, Donald, Harry and William) joined General Mow in Washington, DC, where they lived in a diplomatic residence on 32nd Street, N.W.[13][14]

In the early fifties, General Mow became entangled in an embezzlement scandal that was covered in great detail in major US and Chinese newspapers[6] and even let to a congressional hearing.[15] The Chiang Kai-shek government of the Republic of China alleged that General Mow failed to account for $19,440,000[16] (equivalent to about $180,000,000 in 2015). After a protracted legal battle, during which General Mow fled to Mexico[7][17][18][19] and shared a "luxury" prison cell with the Leon Trotsky assassin Ramón Mercader,[20][21][22] the US Appeals Court in DC upheld a lower-court ruling that General Mow owed the Republic of China $6,368,503 plus interest and costs.[23][24][25] A settlement was reached in 1958,[26][27][28] and General Mow eventually returned to the US in the mid-sixties.[29] A detailed account of these events aired on Chinese TV in May 2015.[30]

Growing up under difficult circumstances, which he detailed in a 2005 lecture,[31] Mow managed to obtain a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1962. After graduation, Mow decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree at Rensselaer in applied mechanics and applied mathematics. In his thesis he developed a perturbation mathematical method to predict secondary vortex flows in polymeric fluids. Five Mow brothers (Van, Maurice, Donald, Harry and William, founder of Bugle Boy Industries, a clothing manufacturer) received a total of 3 Ph.D. degrees in mechanics and applied mathematics, one bachelor's degree each in architecture and electrical engineering from RPI.[32]

Following his doctoral graduation in 1966, Mow went on for a postdoctoral fellowship in applied mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University with Joseph B. Keller. One year later, he joined the Applied Mechanics and Mathematics Group at Bell Labs working on computer programs for U.S. sonar detection of submarines off the East Coast of America. He returned to RPI in 1969 as Associate Professor of Applied Mechanics. In 1976, he was promoted to the rank of Professor, and received a visiting scientist position at the Skeletal Research Laboratory of Harvard Medical School with Melvin J. Glimcher. The following year, to broaden his prospective, Mow received the coveted NATO Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship to visit eight European countries each with universities with noted research in bioengineering. In 1982, Mow was awarded the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Endowed Chair Professorship in Engineering from Rensselaer.

Mow moved to Columbia University in the city of New York in 1986 as the Anne Y. Stein Endowed Chair professor in Mechanical Engineering and Orthopaedic Bioengineering. There he started to work on new ways to map joints, such as the knee, shoulder and wrist, for surgical precision.[33] In 1991 Mow was elected to the National Academy of Engineering "For major contributions toward orthopedic engineering, particularly understanding the physical behavior of cartilage and the arthritic process."[34] In December 1995, he received an invitation from Executive Vice Provost Michael M. Crow and Provost Jonathan R. Cole, to lead the formation of a new Department of Biomedical Engineering (DBME) at Columbia University and became the inaugural Chair from 2000 to 2010. In 2004, ASME established the Van C. Mow Medal for its Bioengineering Division to be bestowed upon an individual who has demonstrated meritorious contributions to the field of bioengineering; the individual must have earned a Ph.D. or equivalent degree between 10 and 20 years of the award.[35] Following a highly public dispute with the Dean of the Engineering School, during which he called Dean Feniosky Peña-Mora a "control freak", Mow stepped down from his position in 2011.[36][37] He currently holds the Stanley Dicker Endowed Chair in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. This new Department of Biomedical Engineering is now ranked 18th among similar departments in the US.[38] Out of 9 engineering departments at Columbia University, only 3 are ranked higher.

Family

In 1973 Mow married Barbara Hoffman, who studied psychology at the University of Vermont. They live together in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Van C. Mow has 2 sons from a previous marriage. Jonathan, born in 1965, was promoted to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc, in March 2015.[39][40] Previously he was the Chief Business Officer (CBO) at this privately held, clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing novel drugs to treat metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.[41] Jonathan received an MBA from the Tepper School of Management at Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mow’s second son, Kelvin, was born in 1968. He is a Managing Director at Groupe SEB (Société d'Emboutissage de Bourgogne).[42] Groupe SEB is a large French consortium that produces small appliances. Notable brand names associated with Groupe SEB include All-Clad, Krups, Moulinex, Rowenta, and Tefal. Kelvin received his MBA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991.[43]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ↑ Google Scholar Record of V.C. Mow
  2. ↑ Prof. Lai's Columbia University Webpage
  3. ↑ Biphasic creep and stress relaxation of articular cartilage in compression: theory and experiments, by VC Mow, SC Kuei, WM Lai, CG Armstrong, in Journal of biomechanical engineering 102 (1), 73-84 (1980). (cited over 1900 times)
  4. ↑ A triphasic theory for the swelling and deformation behaviors of articular cartilage, WM Lai, JS Hou, VC Mow, in Journal of biomechanical engineering 113 (3), 245-258 (1991). (cited over 900 times)
  5. ↑ The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China, by Hannah Pakula, Simon and Schuster, Nov 3, 2009, page xvi.
  6. 1 2 Webpage for General Pang Tzu Mow
  7. ↑ CLIMAX, Roy Langdon, "General Mow and the $19,000,000", June 1957, pp. 2 - 9.
  8. ↑ "Preemptive Strike", by Alan Armstrong, The Lyons Press, first edition (2006), p. 2-3 & 59-62. ISBN 1592289134
  9. ↑ "Flying the Hump", by Otha C. Spencer, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX, 1992, page 27.
  10. ↑ "Hump Air Transport," by Li Xiangping, The State Council Information Office of the PRC, 2003, p.19 - see "Mao BangChu"
  11. ↑ The World's News (Sydney, NSW, Australia),"This is the Tradesmen's Entrance to China", by Patrick McMahon, Saturday, January 27, 1945, P. 5.
  12. ↑ Legion of Merit Citation
  13. ↑ "The Tarnished Treasure of General Mow," by Richard O'Connor, Coronet Magazine, Vol. 41, p. 114 (1957).
  14. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Back to His Future," by Evelyn Iritani September 28, 1997.
  15. ↑ CONGRESSIONAL HEARING HRG-1952-SJS-0024, Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws; Committee on the Judiciary, "Testimony of Frances Yuan and Col. Ve-Shen Hsiang", Hearing Dates: Jul. 1, 10, 1952; Senate Sudoc Number: Y4.J89/2:Y9/3; Length: 61 pp.; Legacy CIS Number: 87 S1543-3
  16. ↑ New York Times, "Chiang Aide In U.S. Recalled To Account For $19,440,000", Wednesday, August 22, 1951, page 1.
  17. ↑ New York Times, "Gen. Mow In Mexico," Friday, February 22, 1952, page 2
  18. ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Mexico Arrests China General in Funds Theft", Thursday, August 14, 1952, Part 2 - Page 4.
  19. ↑ New York Times, "Mexico Holds Mow At Chiang Request", Thursday, August 14, 1952, page 2.
  20. ↑ Isaac Don Levine, "Secrets of an Assassin," LIFE Magazine, Sep 28, 1959, page 122
  21. ↑ Richard O'Connor, "The Tarnished Treasure of General Mow," Coronet Magazine, Vol. 41, pp. 111-116 (1957).
  22. ↑ "The General & the Blonde," Time Magazine, Vol. 60 Issue 8, p33, 8/25/1952.
  23. ↑ New York Times, "U. S. Appeals Court Rules Against Mow", Friday, July 1, 1955, page 5.
  24. ↑ http://federal-circuits.vlex.com/vid/pang-tsu-mow-republic-china-appellee-36650687
  25. ↑ http://openjurist.org/225/f2d/543/pang-tsu-mow-v-republic-of-china
  26. ↑ The Wellington Koo Memoirs (Chinese Oral History Project of the East Asia Institute of Columbia University, Vol. VII, Part C: "The Mow Pang-chu - Chou Chih-jou Controversy: A Case History of Some of the Failings of Personal Politics") by V. K. Wellington Koo, 1978, http://www.amazon.com/Wellington-memoir-Chinese-history-project/dp/B0006X3GV6
  27. ↑ http://blog.xuite.net/z20021014211319/twblog/182872047-1950%E5%B9%B4%E9%96%8B%E5%A7%8B
  28. ↑ 孙立人，毛邦初及其他 - 来自: 顾维钧回忆录 第八分册的评论, http://book.douban.com/review/7466844/
  29. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Back to His Future," by Evelyn Iritani September 28, 1997.
  30. ↑ 毛邦初 让蒋介石颜面扫地的侄子 2015年05月18日, http://taihai.cntv.cn/2015/05/18/VIDE1431914827149404.shtml
  31. ↑ VC Mow, "How to Succeed in America as a Chinese Researcher: A personal journey from the abyss to day light," Plenary Honorary Lecture at the International Chinese Hard Tissue Society (ICHTC) Meeting, Washington, DC, February 20, 2005.
  32. ↑ RPI Alumni Magazine, Summer 2005
  33. ↑ "Experimental Technology Maps Joints for Surgical Precision," New York Times, January 17, 1989
  34. ↑ National Academy of Engineering Citation
  35. ↑ Chien, Shu. "A Tribute to Professor Van C. Mow: A Wonderful Scholar and Leader in Bioengineering". Cell. Mol. Bioeng. 2 (3): 282–4. doi:10.1007/s12195-009-0086-2. PMC 2749170. PMID 19779632 – via PubMed Central.
  36. ↑ "Discord Over Dean Rocks Columbia Engineering School," New York Times, December 8, 2011, p. A30.
  37. ↑ "SEAS Tenured Faculty Vote No-Confidence Peña-Mora, Prof Says," Columbia Spectator, May 18, 2012.
  38. ↑ US News, Graduate School Ranking, Edition 2015
  39. ↑ "PhaseBio Announces Expansion of Leadership Team", NASDAQ Globenewswire, 03/03/2015, see
  40. ↑ see Bloomberg Executive Profiles
  41. ↑ see PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals webpage
  42. ↑ "Tefal’s parent company Group SEB chooses social agency", 02/04/2014 in Singapore by Rezwana Manjur
  43. ↑ linkedin page of Kelvin Mow

External links

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