Meet Flossie Wong-Staal, a Chinese American virologist and molecular biologist who left an indelible mark on the field of HIV and AIDS research. An early passion for science: Born Yee Ching Wong on August 27, 1946, in Guangzhou, China, Wong-Staal was 6 years old when her family fled to Hong Kong after the Chinese Communist Revolution. Growing up, she developed a passion for science, eventually attending the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned a bachelor's degree in bacteriology in 1968 and a doctorate in molecular biology in 1972.
Jew’s great-grandfather, M.Y. Lee, played a key role in American history, helping to build the transcontinental railroad. To unite the eastern and western sections of the railroad, Central Pacific hired roughly 15,000 Chinese laborers who each shoveled 20 pounds of rock over 400 times a day to complete the Summit Tunnel at Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Despite their backbreaking labor, when the two great railroads were united at Promontory Point, Utah, M.Y. Lee and his compatriots were excluded from the historic ceremony commemorating the union of East and West.
When Jew witnessed the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations of 1976, she identified a lack of recognition for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. She believes that not only should these communities understand their own heritage, but that all Americans should have an awareness of their contributions and histories in the U.S. Signed into law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, the commemorative month honors the