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Attorneys for Chinese American hydrologist Sherry Chen reached a historic settlement Thursday with the U.S. government in two lawsuits that sought accountability for Ms. Chen’s wrongful prosecution and termination from her job in 2014. The settlement is one of the largest paid to an individual plaintiff in Department of Commerce history. Ms. Chen will receive $550,000 from the Commerce Department and an annuity from the government valued at $1.25 million over 10 years.

The Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) is proud to announce it has welcomed Gisela Perez Kusakawa as its founding executive director to lead the organization in providing a voice for Asian American scientists, researchers, and scholars across the country. AASF endeavors to protect the rights of Asian Americans and immigrants and promote academic belonging, openness, freedom, and equality for all.

On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Dr. Arati Prabhakar as the next director for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in a 56-40 bipartisan vote. She is the first woman and first person of color confirmed by the Senate to lead OSTP. Prabhakar is an engineer and former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Today, the Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) released a report, “Caught in the Crossfire: Fears of Chinese-American Scientists,” with data that shows a growing number of Chinese-origin American academics leaving the United States and switching from U.S. to Chinese affiliations. The research shows the chilling effect of potential federal investigation and prosecution since the U.S. Department of Justice’s “China Initiative,” which launched in 2018.

This morning, oral arguments will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for Dr. Xiaoxing Xi, a physics professor at Temple University and an internationally recognized expert in superconducting technology, after a federal court in Pennsylvania in April 2021 dismissed claims brought by Dr. Xi and his family against the U.S. government and the FBI agent involved in wrongly investigating and prosecuting him.

Washington, D.C.– Professor Gang Chen, the former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, has led a team to discover what is said to be the best semiconductor ever found, performing better than silicon at conducting heat and electricity. This discovery opens up new possibilities for smaller and faster chips.