Yao Liang

Duration: 2 hours 22 mins
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Description: An interview with Wei Yao Liang, Professor Emeritus of Superconductivity, formerly president of Gonville and Caius College. Filmed in 2013 and edited in June 2015 by Zilan WANG.

Yao Liang's father came to Indonesia from China before the 1939-45 war. He worked as chief cashier in the offices of the Royal Dutch Shell-Sonico Oil Company. Yao was born on the 23rd September 1940 in Sumatra, shortly before the Japanese entered the war and invaded Indonesia, which was then a Dutch Colony. Since China was also at war with Japan, Chinese in the territories being overrun were subjected to fairly hostile treatment and as a result of this the Liang family fled to Java and in effect went into hiding there. Yao experienced the life of a refugee at a very young age. After the war he attended a Chinese High School in Jacarta (the capital of Indonesia) and he still has connections with many of his old schoolmates. A few years ago he was involved in a major reunion of old students and a commemoration of the school (which no longer exists). He was responsible for preparing the reunion book (in Chinese).

He came to England in 1958 at the age of 17, planning to enter a British University. However, there were certain little difficulties, since at that time he did not speak English! Hence his first two years in England were spent at Portsmouth College of Technology learning English and preparing for his his A-levels, which were an essential preliminary to entering an English University! He got the required grades, and was admitted to Imperial College London to read physics. (He says that he got through the examinations by concentrating on mathematical papers, which did not need much knowledge of English.)

After gaining his first degree at Imperial College he came to Cambridge and entered Caius as a research student. At that time Nevill Mott, the head of the Cavendish Laboratory, was also Master of Caius College. This led to a long association with Sir Nevill. Yao also met his wife in Cambridge, who comes from a rather similar background, Chinese from Malaysia. Yao has remained in Caius College and lived in Cambridge ever since (except for a brief period as a Visitor to other Universities and Research Laboratories).

He has now had a wide experience of both Collegiate life and the way in which Cambridge University functions. In Caius he has been a Research Fellow (1969-71), Supernumary Fellow (1971-94), College Lecturer (from 1975), Director of Studies in Natural Sciences (1975-89), a Professorial Fellow (from 1994) and President.

At the Cavendish Laboratory he has been a Demonstrator (1971-75), University Lecturer in Physics (1975-92) , Reader in High Temperature Superconductivity (1992-93) and Professor of Superconductivity since 1994. He has also been the Co-Director (1998-99) and Director (1989) of the Research Centre in Superconductivity. Outside of Cambridge he has been a Visiting Physicist or Professor at a number of establishments, including the Xerox-Palo Alto Research Center (1975-6), EPF Lausanne (1978) and the Institute of Semiconductors, Beijing (1983). He is the author of numerous scientific papers and Co-Editor of a book on Superconductors.

He has three daughters, two of them are doctors and the third is an architect.. His main hobby at present is (very) high quality digital photography.
 
Created: 2015-06-07 02:47
Collection: Film Interviews with Leading Thinkers
Publisher: University of Cambridge
Copyright: Z. Wang
Language: eng (English)
Keywords: Gonville and Caius College; Physics; Chinese; China; Indonesia;
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