Annual AASF Meeting

Inaugural Asian American Pioneer Medal Symposium and Ceremony

The Inaugural Asian American Pioneer Medal Symposium and Ceremony, held in July 2024 at Stanford University, honored the transformative contributions of Asian American pioneers. It brought together distinguished leaders in energy, AI, life sciences, and leadership. Nobel laureates Steven Chu and Randy Schekman, along with Turing Award laureate Raj Reddy, delivered keynotes. Former Stanford president John Hennessy and industry leader Eric Yuan engaged in fireside chats, fostering intellectual exchange. The event also recognized winners of the “Youth Ambassador for Science” competition.

Agenda

Opening Remarks

Speakers:

Judy Chu, Chair of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) (invited)

President Yasheng Huang, VP Kai Li

Executive Director Gisela Kusakawa

Energy/Climate

Keynote:

Steven Chu
Nobel laureate, Stanford, Former U.S. Secretary of Energy.

Panel Discussion:

Yi Cui (Moderator), Director of Sustainability Accelerator, Stanford
Gang Chen, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, MIT
Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor, former U.S. Under Secretary of Energy.

Artificial Intelligence

Keynote:

Raj Reddy
Turing Award laureate, CMU

Panel Discussion:

Alex Acero, Senior Director of Siri, Apple, Inc.
Xuedong Huang, Chief Technology Officer, Zoom
Fei-Fei Li, Co-Director of Human-Centered AI Institute and Sequoia Professor, Stanford.
Dawn Song (moderator), Professor, UC Berkeley

Life Science

Keynote:

Randy Schekman
Nobel laureate, UC Berkeley

Panel Discussion:

Haifan Lin (moderator), Director of Yale Stem Cell Center Eugene Higgins Professor, Yale University
Liqun Luo, Ann And Bill Swindells Professor, Stanford
Ziyang Zhang, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley
Jean Cui, Founder and CEO/President, BlossomHill Therapeutics
Helen Blau, Director of Baxter Laboratory, Donald E. And Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor, Stanford

Leadership

Fireside Chat With Eric Yuan

Fireside chat with Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO, Zoom

Interviewer: Yi Cui, Director of Sustainability Accelerator, Stanford

Fireside Chat With John Hennessy

Fireside chat with John Hennessy, Turing award laureate, Former President of Stanford, Chair of Alphabet

Interviewer: JP Singh, Professor, Princeton University

Asian American Pioneer Medal Ceremony

Medal Presentations:

Teresa H. Meng for “inventing integrated CMOS radio to make WiFi everywhere”
Nasir Ahmed for “inventing discrete cosine transform (DCT) for media compression”
Frank C. Chang for “inventing heterojunction power amplifier for mobile communication”
Dawon Kahng and Simon M. Sze for “discovery of the floating gate memory effect.”
Raj Reddy for “inventing continuous speech recognition”