Dr. Min Chueh Chang & David Da-i Ho

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.  It celebrates the culture, history, and traditions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.  This month, CBD College is celebrating notable icons from the Healthcare and Science community.

Dr. Min Chueh Chang

Born: October 10, 1908

Died: June 5, 1991

Origin:  Lüliang, Shanxi, China

Often credited as M.C. Chang, the doctor was a Chinese reproductive biologist. His specific area of study was the fertilization process in mammalian reproduction. Though his career produced findings that are important and valuable to many areas in the field of fertilization, including his work on in vitro fertilization which led to the first “test tube baby”, he was best known to the world for his contribution to the development of the combined oral contraceptive pill at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.

David Da-i Ho

Born: November 3, 1952

Origin:  Taichung, Taiwan

David Da-i Ho is a Taiwanese-American medical doctor and HIV/AIDS researcher.  Ho has been at the forefront of AIDS research for three decades. He published over 400 papers enabling the scientific community to understand the mechanism of HIV replication. He championed the combination anti-retroviral therapy which had earlier been developed by scientists at NIAID and Merck. This approach allowed the control of HIV replication in patients.  Ho’s research team is working on developing vaccines for AIDS.  Ho is a member of the Committee of 100, a Taiwanese American leadership organization, in addition to several scientific groups.  On December 6, 2006, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.