Hsung-Cheng "Cheng" Hsieh (1929-2019)

HSIEH, ANDERSON, HOLMAN

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 12/21/2019 at 20:48:26

Obituary from the Des Moines Register, Polk County, Iowa.

Hsung-Cheng "Cheng" Hsieh was born on February 24,1929 in Taiwan and passed away on December 2, 2019 in Ames, Iowa due to complications from a stroke.

Having received his elementary and middle school education in Taiwan, he received his high school education and part of his university education at the University of Tokyo in Japan from 1947-1951. In 1951 he received a scholarship to attend Dartmouth College in the United States, from which he graduated in 1954 with a BA in Mathematics with high distinction. He was then awarded the Charles O. Miller Fellowship for graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology receiving an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1955. He received his professional Electrical Engineering degree from Stanford University in 1957, and his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1960.

He then pursued an academic career in teaching and research, having had academic appointments at Wichita State University, The University of Iowa and The University of Michigan where he was a visiting scientist as well as an associate professor in the EE department.

He came to Iowa State in 1968, accepting a position which offered the opportunity for both teaching and research and was promoted to full professor soon after.

He taught and developed a wide range of courses in the EE department over the years and conducted research in those same areas. In the 1960's and 70's he was doing research in plasma physics; in the 1980's research on semi conductor and photonic devices, and in the 1990's he was working in the area of light wave technology, which may lead to the development of the digital optical computer - the next generation of technology. His publications appeared in the very best refereed journals of his field such as the IEEE Journal of Light Wave Technology, the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics and the Journal of Applied Physics.

In 1984-85 he was the Senior Visiting Fellow of the U.K. Science and Engineering Council at the Central Facility for Growth of III-V Compound Semiconductor to SERC at the University of Sheffield, England.

In 1992-93 he was Guest Researcher at the Electrotechnical Laboratory at the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan in Tsukuba, Japan.

His passions outside of work were tennis, travel and ballroom dancing. He and his wife, Janet, were members of the Castle Club in Des Moines and the Red Friar's Ballroom Dance Club in Ames for many years. He will be remembered for his thoughtfulness, and kind and gentle manner.

He is survived by his wife Janet Anderson-Hsieh, daughter Hilda Holman and his granddaughter Zoe Holman.

The memorial service will be held January 4, 2019 at 2pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames at 1015 North Hyland Avenue in Ames, Iowa.

In lieu of flowers memorials may be designated to :

Hope Ministries
P.O. Box 862
Des Moines, IA 50304-0862
www.hopeiowa.org

UU Fellowship of Ames
1015 North Hyland Avenue
Ames, IA 50010

Published in Des Moines Register from Dec. 11 to Dec. 12, 2019