The Fong-Yih (Caroline) Bih Memorial Scholarship fund

It is with great sadness that we must tell you that Caroline (Fong-Yih) Bih passed away on May 31st in Taiwan after a battle with brain cancer that had lasted for 18 months. It is a terrible loss to her friends and family as well as for the scientific community. Fong-Yih got her PhD from UC Riverside and did a post-doc at UC Berkeley, before taking her first job in industry as a research scientist in molecular biology at PPD Discovery. Fong-Yih was working at Microgenics (a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific) when she became ill. Fong-Yih was active in AWIS for about 6 years. She served as Vice President of the Palo Alto chapter and was co-Chair of Mentoring for a year, as well as being involved in Outreach activities. She was also active as a Board member of the Chinese Bioscience Association (CBA) and she was the President-elect of CBA in 2007.

Caroline's sister, Ping Ping, is putting together a memory book for their family as a keepsake. If anyone would like to write some words about Fong-Yih or if you have electronic photos of her - please send those on to Ping Ping (Email should be sent to this address: chingpi1973 @ yahoo.com.tw).

The family will hold a memorial service held for Fong-Yih on July 8th, 2007 in Taiwan. AWIS will be collecting cards for her family - please send them to arrive no later than Wednesday June 18th, 2007 to: PA-AWIS, PO Box 2641, South San Francisco, CA. 94083-2641.

There will be a Memorial Service for Fong-Yih in the Bay Area (July 9) and a Scholarship for community college students will be organized in her memory jointly funded by donations to CBA and AWIS Palo Alto. Further details will be posted to this mailing list and on the AWIS Palo Alto chapter web site (http://www.pa-awis.org) when they are available. Please feel free to send any photos or memories that you have of Fong-Yih so that we can post them on our website and help to honor her life.

In her memory, the Palo Alto AWIS chapter Board in association with the Chinese Biosciences Association (CBA) have created a scholarship in Fong-Yih's name. The AWIS chapter scholarships are given to promising female undergraduates studying the life or physical sciences at a local community college. Beginning in April of 2008, we will add this new $1000 scholarship in Fong-Yih's name.

To donate to the Fong-Yih (Caroline) Bih Scholarhip fund, please send a check to AWIS-Palo Alto at P.O. Box 2641, So. San Francisco, CA 94083-2461. Please be sure to note on the check that you wish for it to go towards this scholarship.

Please contact awis.pa @ gmail.com for additional details.

From a friend:
"please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend, colleague, and sister."

From a PPD Discovery co-worker:
"I am very sad to hear of Fong-Yih's passing. As you know, she was instrumental in supporting many of the projects I and others worked on.I hope her family and friends stay strong through this terribly difficult time of grieving. Send my Prayers, Sympathy, and Condolences to her family."

From a PPD Discovery co-worker:
"I will miss Fong-Yih. January, 18 months ago, on a day Fong-Yih and I were going to have lunch, that morning Fong-Yih called, her voice very slurred from the tumor, told me about the discovery of the cancer. I was hopeful that it was discovered early enough and that the prognosis would be positive. I had lunch with Fong-Yih the second week of this last April, along with her mother. I did not recognize her at first, but her spirit came through in our conversation. The cancer could not suppress her spirit. She talked about her dream of starting a cancer biomarker company, her ideas about better methods for developing these markers. She also talked about surviving her cancer. I truly thought she would. I thought that strength and energy and determination she always had within her could beat the disease. I will always remember her as a friend and colleague, and her energetic spirit.