Dr. Ting-wei Tang

Shirley Shu-Mei Tang was born in Yangmei, Taiwan on September 19, 1939. Shirley attended the First Girl’s High School in Taipei and graduated from National Taiwan University with a BS in chemistry. After migrating to the United States, she married her husband Ting-wei Tang in 1963. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in organic chemistry in 1966 and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Connecticut in 1971.

A longtime resident of Amherst, Massachusetts, Shirley taught at Mount Holyoke College, and later worked as a research associate at UMass Amherst. She then served as an academic advisor at the United Asia Learning Resource Center, where she took great pleasure in working with and providing support for minority students.

Shirley was an accomplished pianist, and loved to listen to classical music. She appreciated art and gardening, and enjoyed cooking and entertaining guests. Shirley fought a challenging 16- year battle with Parkinson’s disease and made the most of every opportunity to be with her family.

Ting-wei Tang is professor emeritus of electrical engineering in the UMass Amherst College of Engineering. He is a former member of UMass ECE Nanoelectronics Theory and Simulation Laboratory, which focuses its research activities in theoretical and computational nanosciences with engineering applications related to emerging semiconductor nanostructures, post-CMOS nanoelectronic devices and computing paradigms, and nanoenergy materials. Tang received his bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University in 1957 and his MS and PhD from Brown University in 1961 and 1964 respectively.