Wei-Jen Chang Endowed Scholarship Fund

Wei-Jen Chang was born December 8, 1936 in Shanghai, China. She is a graduate of the prestigious Taipei First Girls School and National Taiwan University. She earned her MS from the University of Toronto, Canada and continued her doctorate studies at the University of California-Berkeley, from where she is ABD. She was passionate about science education and served as an instructor in the biology department of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Akron beginning in 1970. For 35 years, she was the face of the Microbiology Lab and she was also a noted researcher and a published author. She was excited about the direction that the biology department was headed with the growth in new faculty hires and programs for students. Mrs. Chang retired from the University in 2006.

A strong advocate of higher education, Mrs. Chang began contributing to the department of biology in 1991 to support undergraduate summer research fellowships. She continued her support annually for the next 16 years, making her a member of the prestigious John R. Buchtel Society.

The Wei-Jen Chang Endowed Scholarship Fund was established in 2008 by Linda Chang in memory of her beloved mother. The purpose of the scholarship is to assist deserving undergraduate or graduate students who are receiving a biology degree from The University of Akron.

The scholarship will be awarded by The University of Akron’s Department of Biology in conjunction with the Office of Student Financial Aid. Candidates for this scholarship must demonstrate financial need. Also, in honor of Wei-Jen’s love of science, it is the donor’s intention that the student should be passionate about science as determined by biology faculty.