One Advisor + Two Generations = Unique ME Experience
For Professor Panos Papalambros, it might have seemed like déja vu all over again when he advised PhD candidates Zhifang Li and her younger sister Zhijun Li. That's because he was also the doctoral advisor for their father, Heng Long Li, becoming one of few faculty members to advise two generations of one family at one institution.
"Heng Long was one of the very first Chinese scientists to come to the United States following the thawing of the Sino-U.S. relations in the late 1970s-early 1980s," recalled Papalambros. "He came as a visiting scholar since there were no PhD students from China at that time. After a year of working with him, I decided that he just had to stay for a doctorate, and so I started writing letters to various Chinese Ministries and to his company president to allow him to stay. Eventually, we were successful in obtaining permission for him, and so I started advising a student who arguably was not only older than I was, but also wiser."
Starting his doctoral studies at the age of 37, Heng Long Li received his PhD in 1985. During the final stages of his study, his wife and the younger daughter left home and joined him in the United States. That is when the little girl first met her future advisor, although she, at the age of 6, was too young to even remember that, and certainly Professor Papalambros had no idea what was coming. Still, their father's experience was to be influential when Li's daughters were seeking an education.
"Since I was a child, my father has always been a role model for me," said Dr. Zhijun Li. "With my parents' introduction, I had known that the University of Michigan is one of the leading universities in the United States. My father also told me how his education at the College of Engineering had benefited his life, and how the optimization knowledge had contributed to his work."
"My father always told us stories about his studies and life at the University of Michigan," said Dr. Zhifang Li. "He loves Ann Arbor, so it was a no-brainer to make the decision to come to the College of Engineering for graduate study."
Prior to coming to Michigan, Dr. Zhifang Li attended Peking University and Dr. Zhijun Li graduated from Tsinghua University. The older daughter, Dr. Zhifang Li, got her PhD in Electrical Engineering in the summer of 2001, co-advised by Professor Papalambros and EECS Professor John Volakis. She received the Barbour Fellowship for the 2000-01 academic year. Dr. Zhijun Li received her degree in May 2006, co-advised by Professor Papalambros and ME Associate Research Scientist Michael Kokkolaras. The sisters were on campus for a three-month overlap during their studies.
Design optimization and rational decision making have been the intellectual threads in all three doctoral dissertations of the Li family. Were they good students? "Absolutely," quipped Papalambros, "which is why I went for second and third rounds!" Dr. Zhijun Li was characteristically humble about her accomplishments. "I think I was a good student," she said. "I enjoyed my studies in the Optimal Design Lab led by Professor Papalambros, and I learned a lot from my lab mates. I always feel proud to tell people that I graduated from the University of Michigan and that I worked in the Optimal Design Lab."
While studying at ME, the family was also concerned about the welfare of others from their country. They all worked with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) to help other students. When Dr. Zhijun Li was vice president of the group in 2004, the organization received the University of Michigan Organization Leadership Award, an honor the group repeated the following year. In 2005, she also took on the role of Chair of Chinese Alumni Association.
Upon his return to China after his studies in ME, Dr. Heng Long Li became a vice-president of his company, the China Aluminum Corporation, eventually leading it into becoming a global multi-billion dollar enterprise. Although he retired in late 2003, he continues to work full time as a senior advisor for the company. He is currently working in the company's foreign project investment efforts, focusing on aluminum, copper and titanium projects around the world.
"I am doing a lot of traveling," Dr. Heng Long Li said, "and this year I have already visited Slovakia, Peru, Canada, Mongolia and Russia. It is worthwhile to tell people that the University of Michigan and Professor Papalambros are so attractive to students and scholars who pursue fruitful academic achievements," he added. "It has been so important to my family and will last for generations. However, I feel regret to say that when I took on heavier management positions in the corporation, I almost forgot many details in optimization theories and methods. But in my job area, to improve the merit is so important that I never forget the concept of optimization—to do things better and to find the optimal solution."
There's yet another connection between the family and the University of Michigan: Dr. Zhifang Li's husband, Dr. Yifei Zhang, received his PhD in Applied Physics in 2000.
"I think that's as far as I can go with PhD advising of the Li family generations," said Papalambros. "Although I know there is a third one in the pipeline, I hope I'll be on the beach somewhere when they come to the University of Michigan for their PhDs!"
