"I have heard students complain that some Georgia Tech professors don't care about their students," Wong says. "The perception is that if you 'get it,' fine and if you don't 'get it,' that's tough. Some professors say this is a tough place and if you can't handle it, get out of the way and give someone else a chance. That is the totally wrong attitude to have."

A professor in materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech since 1996, Wong spent the previous 19 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories, earning the rank of fellow, the most prestigious award bestowed by Bell Labs.

In April, Wong received the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, the highest faculty honor bestowed by Georgia Tech. The award is based on three qualities — teaching, research and service.

"At Bell Labs, we knew who the customer was. Any professor has to know that the student is our customer and professors have to be accountable to them," Wong says.

While his work at Bell Labs involved material science, Wong says it was there that he became involved with systems integration.

Now Wong's research is on the nanoscale.

"We are working on nanomaterials for thermal transfer and also for interconnectivity. Carbon nanotubes or nanoparticles have a very high thermal transport rate. Carbon nanotubes also have the potential to transport very fast, but it is still in the research stage," he says.

A native of Hong Kong, Wong immigrated to the United States right after high school. He followed an older brother to Purdue University in Indiana, where he received his chemistry degree. He received his doctoral degree in inorganic/organic chemistry at Penn State University. After his graduate studies he was awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel laureate professor Henry Taube at Stanford University.

He chose to leave industry for academia because of changes at Bell Labs and because of the opportunities available with the Microsystems Packaging Research Center at Tech. Since joining the faculty, Wong has generated more than $17 million in grant money and received a half-dozen more awards. He was named a Regents' professor in 2000.

"I've never regretted the move a single bit. I enjoy working with students immensely. It is the most rewarding part of what I do. At Bell Labs, I was involved in research, but the Tech faculty here does research, teaching and service," Wong says. "When you teach, you pass on knowledge and education to a new generation and inspire them to be whatever they choose to be."

Wong has graduated seven PhD students, 14 master's students and about two dozen undergraduate research assistants.

"They come here and they know nothing and they don't know what they want to do and when they leave, they go on to be very successful in their careers," Wong says. "Watching student growth and how they progress from when they begin is incredible."

©2004 Georgia Tech Alumni Association