Stephen Sik-Sang Yau (also known as Stephen Yau or S.S. Yau) is an American computer scientist. He is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. He is an Elected Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

and Life Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Early life and Education

He was born on August 6, 1935, in

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, China. As a result of the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

, his family moved to Taiwan. He obtained a B.S. degree from the National Taiwan University, Taipei in 1958 in electrical engineering. He arrived in USA to join University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1958, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from in 1961, where his advisor was

Mac Van Valkenburg Mac Elwyn Van Valkenburg (October 5, 1921–March 19, 1997) was an American electrical engineer and university professor. He wrote seven textbooks and numerous scientific publications. Early life and education Van Valkenburg was born in Union, Uta ...

Academic Career

In 1961, he joined

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, Evanston, Ill. as a faculty member and later became the Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science there. During 1988–1994, he was with the Computer and Information Sciences Department at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He joined Arizona State University in 1994. He served as the President of the IEEE Computer Society during 1974–1975. His first research publication was in 1962. He has continued to be an active researcher as of 2022 at age 87, with a span of 60 years. His most recent research contributions are in

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...

Recognitions

He served as the editor-in-chief of the Computer magazine of the IEEE Computer Society during 1981–1984 and an editor of the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. He was awarded the Louis E. Levy Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, the Richard E. Merwin Award of the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Centennial Medal, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Silver Core Award.Stephen S. Yau 1974–1975 IEEE Computer Society President and Award Recipient
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Personal life

He married Vickie Liu on June 14, 1964. They have two sons Andrew Yau and Philip Yau.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists Arizona State University faculty Fellow Members of the IEEE Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science {{US-compu-bio-stub