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I grew up in the 1970's on the tropical island of Penang,
in Malaysia.
At that time, I little realized that I was living in a tropical paradise.
Penang, in the 70's, was a beautiful resort island, with a sleepy port
city, clear skies, pristine waters, plentiful seafood and beautiful
uncrowded beaches. (Today, it is a post-industrial powerhouse, hosting
the manufacturing facilities of IT firms such as Intel, Motorola, Seagate
and Quantum.)
I was an avid reader as a child, and read voraciously from an early
age. My earliest interest lay in astronomy. I read every single book
I could find about the stars and space. This in turn lead to an interest
in Science Fiction that abides to this day.
I graduated from secondary school in Australia in 1984, and continued on to college at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I studied social science and economics. Wanting to see more of America, I transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. I had trouble finding housing, and so joined a housing co-operative at Berkeley, and for a time even worked as the food manager for the coop.
It was while at Berkeley that my interest in computers was reignited. I used to hang out with the computer science majors from my coop. I had also taken on a part time job taking care of the mailing list data base at the Oxfam office in San Francisco.
After receiving my BA in Economics from Berkeley, I seriously considered getting a second degree in engineering. Instead I took a job as a financial analyst at the investment banking arm of HSBC (Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp.) in Singapore. Soon afterwards I went on to join the Ph.D. program in Economics at Harvard University.
Two years into the program an important event occurred for me, I received a fellowship that allowed me to travel around India and study the volunteer organizations that worked there.
This experience gave me confidence that I could get by in almost any country in the world. Since then I have traveled to many less developed nations, and have also been able to participate in development projects in some of those countries.
In 1996 I graduated from the Ph.D. program at Harvard and joined the City University of Hong Kong as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and Finance.
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fill a cup in Spring
Let us Winter and Sorrow fling Ours is but a short stay Seize Life for time is on the wing! |
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