Da Hsuan Feng, Ph.D.

Vice President for Research and Economic Development

Born in New Delhi, India, Dr. Feng moved to Singapore as a young boy. After completing his elementary, secondary education and two years in civil engineering from Singapore Polytechnic, Dr. Feng received his Bachelor and Doctorate degrees from Drew University and the University of Minnesota respectively.

Prior to joining the Physics Department of Drexel University in 1976, where he eventually became the M. Russell Wehr Professor of Physics, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manchester and the University of Texas at Austin.

During his tenure at Drexel University, he served for two years as Program Director of Theoretical Physics at the National Science Foundation and Visiting Professor of the Niels Bohr Institute.

Feng is an expert in mathematical physics, nuclear and nuclear astrophysics, quantum electronics, fundamental issues of quantum mechanics, network architecture and computational physics. He has been a consultant to the theoretical physics groups of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory and United Kingdom’s Daresbury Laboratory. He also is an honorary/guest professor of six distinguished Chinese universities and Academia Sinica. In 1996, Feng was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society “for outstanding contributions to the understanding of nuclear structure physics, particularly for the applications of the coherent states to physics and nuclear physics.”

In 1997-1998, Feng served as technical advisor to Congressman Curt Weldon, currently Vice Chair of the House Armed Services, regarding South Africa, Central Europe, (especially Hungary) and China. He accompanied two Congressional Delegations to East Asia (January and March of 1997) and Central Europe in December of 1999.

From April of 1998 until December of 2000, he took a leave of absence from Drexel University to serve as Vice President and HUBS (Hospitals, Universities, Businesses and Schools) General Manager of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a multinational, Fortune 500 company. At SAIC, Feng was responsible for developing the HUBS project, a project inspired by the political leadership of the “Four States” (Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania) and was designed to be the catalyst and the integration of information systems in that region. From FY98 to FY03, the project received more than $60 million of federal funding.

On December 9, 2000, Feng resigned from both Drexel University and SAIC to assume the position of Vice President for Research and Graduate Education and Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas. Feng’s objective at UT Dallas, as designated by the President and the Provost, is to rapidly build the UT Dallas’ research breath and depth. As the first VP for Research and Graduate Education, Feng devised the following mission statement for his position:

“The Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Education of the University of Texas at Dallas identifies areas of intellectual importance, promotes the university as an economic and innovation engine as well as further activates UT Dallas’s development as a world class university. In addition, the office promotes the university’s “knowledge” products and collaborates synergistically with local, regional, national and international corporations and governments to enhance the global vision and impact of science and technology.”

The goal is to drive the University to become a major international research University. Taking into account the size of UT Dallas and resources, he articulated three concentrations of excellence for UT Dallas in this decade: digital communications, advanced materials and instrumentations and disease centric post genomic research.

Since coming to UT Dallas, and focused on the above goal, Feng has achieved the following.

  • Established a Research Advisory Board. Members of the board are all leaders in academia, industry and government.
  • Successfully secured an endowment for the James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology and recruited Dr. Alan MacDiarmid, the 2000 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry to fill this Chair.
  • Successfully recruited the nanotechnology research team of Honeywell Corporation in New Jersey. This team is now the backbone of UT Dallas’ rapidly growing nanoscience program.
  • Initiated the SPRING (Strategic Partnership of Research in NanotechnoloGy) project, which linked together, besides UT Dallas, Rice University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Arlington. From FY03 to FY05, Feng worked closely with Texas’ Congressional delegation and secured $26 Million for SPRING.
  • Initiated the UT Dallas – UT Southwestern Medical Center Sickle Cell center with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus. This is the first and only Congressionally mandated NIH sickle cell center in Southwest United States. This center is now expanded into a six universities consortium known as the Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology.
  • Founded the Medical Device Action Alliance, a regional effort to promote interdisciplinary research in this technological arena. This Alliance is envisioned to be the platform to mix and churn the robust medical device community with the depressed telecom community.
  • Research expenditure for UT Dallas rose from $14 Million to $30 Million during the past four years.
  • Assisted UT Dallas’s Electrical Engineering team to link up with large defense contractors (Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Galaxy Scientific, SAIC) to compete for the Army’s 10 year 93 million flexible panel initiative.
  • He recruited Dr. Russell Hulse, 1993 Nobel laureate in physics, as a visiting professor of science and technology of UT Dallas.
  • Testified for the United States House Science Committee on Nanotechnology (December 5th, 2003) and on SBIR and STTR (January 23rd, 2004)

Feng has published more than 180 scientific papers, edited more than 20 books, supervised 5 Ph.D. students and 4 postdoctoral fellows, and served as editor of four scientific journals.

Feng’s other professional affiliations include: Special advisor to the Editor-in-chief of Korean American Science and Technology Network (which is read by 15,000 Koreans globally), a member of the Computer Science/Engineering Technical Evaluation Advisory Task Force (1998) of the University of South Carolina, a member of the United States Department of Education (2000) Field Initiated Studies Technology Panel, and currently a member of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Science and Engineering Technology (SET) Executive Committee and a Board Director of CellStar Corporation.

Recent awards include: 1999 Millennium Award for Vision and Leadership in Technology, TechFEST ’99 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1999 Delaware Valley (Pennsylvania) Technical Recruiting Network TECHIE Award, 2000 Institute Service Award of the Chinese Institute of Engineers - USA (CIE-USA), 2000 Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater Drew University of Madison, New Jersey, 2002 DFWTechbiz twelve persons to watch list and a recipient of the 2003 Inside Collin County (Texas) Business 21 for the 21st Century award.

 

Updated: 2006-08-24