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February 2, 2007 Vol. 77, no.
4S
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| PEG SKORPINSKI
PHOTO |
Professor Minute with CEE associate professor Shaofan Li
CEE associate professor Shaofan Li received his B.S. in ME from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai in 1982, his M.S. in Computational Mechanics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, in 1989, his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1993 and his Ph.D. in ME from Northwestern University in 1997. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 2000. His areas of interest include bio- and nano-mechanics and materials, and configurational force mechanics, among others.
What first inspired you to go into engineering?
When I was a kid, I used to assemble transistor radios myself. That
is probably the first moment I thought that I would like to become
an electrical engineer. However, applied and computational mechanics
is a field that requires a lot of mathematics, and I felt that it
fits me better, so I am a mechanician now.
To date, what has been the most memorable moment in your career?
Two or three years ago, one of my students in my CEE 130 class invited
me to attend his piano recital concert in Hertz Hall. He played Brahms
and Rachmaninoff beautifully, and I thought that was a cool and memorable
moment because I felt that I was rewarded for my teaching;
If you had a few extra hours, what would you do?
If I had free time, I would like to sit in a graduate class in the
physics department to learn more about string theory.
What should engineering students make sure they do at Berkeley before
they graduate?
Go to a Berkeley–Stanford Big Game at least once. Get at least
one “A” in an upper-division technical class. Make at least
one phone call from Berkeley to your mother at home.
What are you currently reading?
William Hoover’s Computational Statistical Mechanics.
What is one thing you would like to learn how to do?
Experiments in cell and molecular biology.
If you would like us to feature your favorite professor, please e-mail
his or her name to engnews@coe.berkeley.edu. |
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