List of notable Asian Americans

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This page is a list of notable Asian Americans.

Contents 1 Politics 2 Law 3 Business and Industry 4 Sports 5 Arts and Architecture 6 Music 7 Entertainment 8 Science 9 See also 10 Footnotes

[edit] Politics

• Dalip Singh Saund became the first Asian immigrant elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956.
• Daniel Inouye, elected to the Senate in 1962. As of 2006, he is the Senate's third-most senior member.
• Hiram Fong was the first Asian American elected to the Senate from Hawaii.
• George Ariyoshi became the first Asian American governor (of Hawaii) in 1974.
• Benjamin Cayetano governor of Hawaii.
• Gary Locke first Asian American governor on the mainland United States
• Norman Mineta United States Secretary of Transportation from 2001 to 2006
• Elaine Chao current United States Secretary of Labor
• Daniel Akaka U.S. Senator for Hawaii.
• Mike Honda U.S. Congressman for California's Fifteenth Congressional District and is the highest-ranking Asian American member of the Democratic National Committee.
• Van Tran is a Republican member of the California State Assembly.
• Shien Biau Woo became the first Asia American state wide officer in the Northeast, when elected Lt. Governor of Delaware in 1984.
• Bobby Jindal became the first Indian American congressman from Louisiana.
• John Liu became the first Asian American elected to the New York City Council (representing Flushing, Queens).
• Martha Wong first Asian American elected to the Houston City Council (1993 - representing District C) and also was the first Asian American woman elected to the Texas State Legislature.
• Gordon Quan (first Asian American male elected to the Houston City Council (1999) in a citywide (at-large) council seat; also first Asian American Mayor Pro Tem, 2002 - 2004)
• Upendra J. Chivukula became the first Asian American elected to the New Jersey General Assembly.
• Hubert Vo, a Vietnamese immigrant, became the first Vietnamese American elected to the Texas Legislature.
• Jimmy Meng became the first Asian American elected to the New York State Assembly and is the only Asian American in either house of the legislature.
• Masur Javed "M.J." Khan, Houston City Councilmember (2004-present)

[edit] Law

For a list of Asian Americans who are or have served as judges, see List of Asian American jurists.

• Viet D. Dinh was a United States Assistant Attorney General and a key drafter of what became the USA PATRIOT Act.
• Heather Fong is the first Asian American woman to head a major metropolitan police department (San Francisco, California).
• Harold Hongju Koh is dean of Yale Law School.
• Fred Korematsu was a prominent resister of Japanese American internment.
• Dale Minami is an attorney who helped reverse Fred Korematsu's criminal conviction.
• Frank H. Wu is dean of Wayne State University Law School.
• Bruce Yamashita is an attorney and U.S. Marine Corps officer who worked to expose racial discrimination within the Corps.
• John Yoo served in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and was a drafter of what later became known as the "torture memo."

[edit] Business and Industry

• An Wang founded Wang Laboratories in June 1951.
• Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded the Nvidia corporation in 1993.
• Jeff Yang co-founded A Magazine in 1989 and is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1994.
• Andrea Jung serves as Chairman and CEO of Avon Products.
• Vinod Khosla was a founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and is a successful general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.
• Sabeer Bhatia co-founded Hotmail

[edit] Sports

• Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947-48 season, when he played for the New York Knicks.
• Sammy Lee became the first Asian American to earn an Olympic Gold Medal, when he won in platform diving in both 1948 and 1952.
• Victoria Draves won gold medals in the 1948 platform and springboard events.
• Harold Sakata won a weightlifting silver medal in the 1948 Olympics
• Tommy Kono Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting
• Yoshinobu Oyakawa Olympic gold medalist in 100-meter backstroke
• Ford Konno Olympic gold medalist in 1500-meter freestyle
• Evelyn Kawamoto Olympic bronze medalist in swimming.
• Eric Sato won Olympic gold medalist in volleyball
• Liane Sato won Olympic bronze medalist in volleyball
• Amy Chow won gold and silver medals in gymnastics during the 1996 Olympics.
• Apolo Anton Ohno won five Olympic medals in short-track speed skating (two gold) in 2002 and 2006, as well as a world cup championship.
• Toby Dawson won a 2006 Olympic bronze medal in Men’s Freestyle Skiing.
• Bryan Clay won the silver medal in the 2004 decathlon and was the sport's 2005 world champion.
• Tiffany Chin won the US Figure Skating Championship in 1985.
• Kristi Yamaguchi won three national championships (one individual, two in pairs), two world titles, and the 1992 Olympic Gold medal, while
• Michelle Kwan has won nine national championships and five world titles, as well as two Olympic medals (silver in 1998, bronze in 2002).
• Dat Nguyen was an All-American linebacker at Texas A&M University and later became the first Vietnamese American in the National Football League.
• Norm Chow is the currently offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans after helping lead USC to several NCAA championships as the offensive coordinator there.
• Hines Ward was the MVP of Super Bowl XL while playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Natalie Coughlin Olympic gold medalist in swimming
• Hikaru Nakamura became the youngest American ever to earn the titles of National Master (age 10) and International Grandmaster (age 15) in chess.
• Michael Chang won tennis' French Open in 1987.
• Tiger Woods
• Jeanette Lee pool player
• Sonya Thomas is one of the world's top competitive eaters.

[edit] Arts and Architecture

• IM Pei, renowned architect
• Minoru Yamasaki designed the World Trade Center
• Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

[edit] Music

• Jeff Chang is a music critic and historian of hip-hop culture.
• Yo-Yo Ma renowned cellist
• Zubin Mehta orchestra conductor
• Amerie R&B singers of today.
• James Iha, formerly the guitarist of The Smashing Pumpkins
• Mike Shinoda and Joseph Hahn are successful Asian Americans in the popular rap rock band Linkin Park.
• Jin Au-Yeung is credited as being a pioneer in the Asian American hip hop scene.
• Cassie is an R&B singer.

[edit] Entertainment

• Chang and Eng Bunker (the source for the term "Siamese Twins")
• Sessue Hayakawa
• Tsuru Aoki
• Anna May Wong
• Bruce Lee
• George Takei actor on Star Trek fame)
• Pat Morita comedian and actor best known for work on Happy Days and Karate Kid
• Haing Ngor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985.
• Lucy Liu (1968 - ) Chinese-American actress^[1]
• Margaret Cho won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian in 1994.
• Apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas,
• Jasmine Trias American Idol contestant
• Camile Velasco of American Idol,
• Tia Carrere
• Jocelyn Enriquez
• Vanessa Anne Hudgens, actor
• Rob Schnieder, actor, comedian
• Mark Dacascos of the Crying Freeman and the "Chairman" from Iron Chef America
• Moon Lee graphic artist, credited with creating the Geisha Look, and popular actor from the eighties into the nineties
• Dat Phan comedian, winner of the first season of Last Comic Standing

[edit] Science

• Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang received the Nobel laureates in Physics for work in particle physics.
• Chien-Shiung Wu, known to many scientists as the "First Lady of Physics".
• Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel laureate in “Physiology or Medicine” in 1968 for work in genetics and protein synthesis.
• Samuel C.C. Ting Nobel laureate in physics for discovering the existence of a new particle called j/psi.
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Nobel laureate in Physics.
• David D. Ho, HIV/AIDS researcher
• Yuan T. Lee Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
• Shiing-Shen Chern mathematician and winner of the prestigious Wolf Prize for his work in differential geometry.
• Stephen Chu Nobel laureate in Physics in 1997 for research on cooling and trapping atoms using laser light.
• Daniel Tsui Nobel laureate in Physics for contributions to the discovery of the fractional Quantum Hall effect.
• Min Chueh Chang, Co-inventor of the birth control pill.

[edit] See also

• List of Cambodian Americans
• List of Chinese Americans
• List of Filipino Americans
• List of Hmong Americans
• List of Indian Americans
• List of Japanese Americans
• List of Korean Americans
• List of Laotian Americans
• List of Taiwanese Americans
• List of Vietnamese Americans

[edit] Footnotes