Dr. Chih-Hu Recognized For Outstanding Service
Dr. Chih-Hu, Biotechnology Research Manager in Dialyzer Research and Development in Ogden, has seen incredible changes since he came to Utah in the late 1980s.
Back then he was a graduate student at the University of Utah earning both a master’s degree and then a doctoral degree. Now Chih-Hu’s been with FMCNA for 15 years and recently received an Outstanding Service Award by Utah State University’s Bioengineering Department for his long time participation on the department’s Industrial Advisory Board.
Chih-Hu, who has chaired that board for the past two years, succeeded FMCNA colleague Eric, Director of Research and Development for Hemodialysis, on the board in 2006. “I think of it as community service,” Chih-Hu said.
Utah State Department of Bioengineering Chairman Ron Sims, who presented the award to Chih-Hu, said, “As chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board, Dr. Chih-Hu has played a key role in helping the Engineering Department through the accreditation process.”
“This kind of external assessment of our bioengineering program is very important to us,” Sims said. “We ask the members of this board if we are preparing students that you would want to hire.”
Sims said he could not over-estimate the value of board’s contribution to his department. “It’s huge,” Sims said. He said the Industrial Advisory Board includes a wide range of senior-level engineering professionals representing such diverse businesses as agriculture, municipal government, engineering technology, medicine, and science and technology research, among others.
Sims said that over the years many Utah State bioengineering technology students have worked at FMCNA with Dr. Chih-Hu.
“It’s fun to get to know a new generation of students and to find out what they think about and what they want,” Chih-Hu said. Among the students he sees these days in bioengineering technology, he said, about one-third either go on to medical school, industry, or to pursue a graduate degree.
Over the years, Chih-Hu said the world of information has changed much more than the students have changed.
It’s mostly the rapid advancements with information and communications,” Chih-Hu said. “When I was studying at the University of Utah in 1996 the Internet was new and not so popular, and it was not easy to get the information you needed as a student. Now everything is available and the question is, ‘How do you use it?’
Things have changed at work too in the past 15 years. “It’s great to see how our department has grown up,” Chih-Hu said. “When I came here in 1999 the department was Eric (Stroup), me, two others and some technicians. Now the department has close to 30 people, and I have seven in my group. We even have our own lab.”
