Dr. Paul P. Wang Memorial Fund
Paul P. Wang, professor emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an early pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, served on the Duke faculty for nearly 40 years. He died on January 27, 2021, at the age of 85.
He is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Julia Wang, as well as by son Samuel Wang (Barbara), grandson Samuel James Wang and granddaughter Lucia Wang; son George Wang, grandson Carter Wang, and granddaughter Leah Wang.
The family has established the Dr. Paul P. Wang Memorial Fund in his honor to benefit Duke Engineering students.
How You Can Give
If you would like to make a gift to the Dr. Paul P. Wang Memorial Fund, please click the button to go to gifts.duke.edu:
About Dr. Paul P. Wang
Paul P. Wang was a prolific and renowned researcher and author in the areas of pattern recognition, image processing, fuzzy logic, mathematics of uncertainty and intelligent machines. A dedicated teacher, he mentored generations of Duke ECE undergraduate and graduate students.
Dr. Paul P. Wang was a kind and generous colleague who will be greatly missed by his many friends at Duke and beyond.
Dr. Wang also consulted on diverse specialties including advanced fighter planes, naval ship navigation, energy, and highly reliable systems for Duke University Medical Center, Emerson Electric, Grumman and LORD Corporation, amongst others. He also served as an ASEE-NASA Fellow at Langley Space Research Center.
He was a kind and generous colleague who will be greatly missed by his many friends at Duke and beyond.
Dr. Wang will be remembered for his wonderful zest for life—his curiosity about all things, his devotion to his family, and his great passion for history, reading, music, the arts, learning, and education. In 2009, Duke’s Perkins Library exhibited “Chinese Paintings from the Kingdom of Min” from Dr. and Mrs. Wang’s personal collection. A permanent collection of Dr. and Mrs. Wang’s academic and literary donations is housed at Jimei University in Xiamen, China.
He joined the Duke Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty in 1968, and retired in 2005. In retirement he kept up active contact with his colleagues in Duke ECE.
A native of Fujian Province, China and Taiwan, he earned his BS in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University and an MS in electrical engineering from the University of New Brunswick before completing a PhD from Ohio State University in 1965. He served at Bell Laboratories in Communications Systems Research and Modern Control Theory before joining the Duke Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) faculty in 1968. He retired from Duke in 2005, but kept in active contact with Duke ECE faculty and staff.
He died on January 27, 2021, at the age of 85. Duke University flags were lowered in his memory on February 1, 2021.
“I do feel my writing would not be of any value if my writing is not truthful! Hence, it is very important that I never violate my own conviction that I write only stories of the utmost truth.”