Duy-Loan Le
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Duy-Loan Le (born 1962, Vietnam) was the first woman and the first Asian to get elected to the rank of Texas Instruments Senior Fellow.
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[edit] Early Life
Born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1962, she fled to the U.S. with no father and a family of 9 in 1975, eventually settling in Houston. Although Le knew no English on her arrival, she mastered the language fast enough to graduate from Alief Hastings High School at 16 as Valedictorian of her class of 335 students. In 1976, she received her first recognition in the US as 'Citizen of the Month' from Kiwanis International Club. In 1981, Houston Chronicle featured her as 'Scholastic Wonder', and Duy-Loan also received commendation from The Office of The Ambassador of The Royal Netherlands for her scholastic achievement and her humanitarian effort in fund raising to aid the Vietnamese refugees.
[edit] University and Work at Texas instruments
In 1982, Duy-Loan received her BSEE from University of Texas with High Honor and subsequently obtained her MBA from the University of Houston while working full time. She began her career at Texas Instruments as a memory design engineer.
Duy-Loan's technical contributions at Texas Instruments were recognized with her election as a Member of Technical Staff in 1990, Senior Member of Techncal Staff in 1993, the first woman at TI to be elected Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1997 and the first woman elected TI-Fellow in 1999 (equivalent to a VP level on the business side).
Currently, she manages development projects for wireless communications as TI program manager for Laplace (a DSP chip for 3G base stations) and manager of DSP Advanced Ramp. In 2002, Duy-Loan became the first Oriental and the first woman to be elected TI Senior Fellow in Texas Instruments' 75 years of history, joining 4 other men who hold this prestigious title TI world wide, and today she remains the only woman with this title.
[edit] Achievements and Awards
- Leader of the development of TI's Digital Signal Process products, including one recognized in Guinness World Records as the fastest single-core DSP in the world.
- Accumulated 22 patents, all earning places in Texas Instruments' Hall of Fame.
- Top 20 Houston Women in Technology in 2000
- Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2001
- National Technologist of the Year at the Women of Color Conference held in Atlanta in September, 2002.
- Director of Board of National Instruments
- Outstanding Young Graduate Award from University of Texas-College of Engineering
- Outstanding Young Texas Exe Award from The University of Texas-Texas Exes
- Who's Who in the World
- Women on the Move with Congressional recognition for civic leadership from Texas Executive Women & Houston Chronicle
- Texas Salutes Duy-Loan for Making History Today from TV-Channel 11 as part of Asian-Pacific Heritage month
- Houston’s Leader from Center of Future for Houston & JPMorgan Chase
[edit] Personal Life
Duy-Loan Le is married to Tuan N. Dao. They have two sons, Quy-Dan and Quy-Don Dao. Duy-Loan also holds a black belt in Taekwon-Do and has won several medals and trophies in the State of Texas. For fun, Duy-Loan enjoys deep-sea fishing, playing poker, and reading. She listens to classical music and also traditional Vietnamese music. Aside from these hobbies, Duy-Loan tries to spend time with her family as much as she can.
[edit] Charity work
She participates in numerous charity and fund raising projects for colleges, orphanages, and charity foundations. Duy-Loan serves on the Board of two non-profit organizations which promote education and support social economic development projects in the third world.
Duy-Loan has worked to advance education and learning conditions in Vietnam. She believes that by doing so, the environment for learning will produce more students who will be able to improve the overall state of Vietnam. She recently achieved her longtime dream of bringing soundly-built school facilities to rural Vietnam with the opening of “Thanh Thoi B”—a schoolhouse accommodating 120 elementary-age students—whose construction she played a leadership role in implementing. Her dream is to raise enough money to build 100 schools in five years. This activity complements well her similar effort in 10 other countries.
Ms. Le speaks annually at numerous national events to help create an environment that stimulates and releases leadership potential in women and Asian-Americans.
Duy-Loan's service to the community includes:
- United Way, Vietnamese Culture & Science Association’s sponsored projects, and taught Junior Achievement for many years.
- Director of Mona Foundation, promoting education and supporting social economic development in 10 countries.
- Founding member and Advisory Board Director for Sunflower mission bringing educational assistance to Vietnam.
- Founding member and Honorary Board Director for Science National Honor Society, promoting math and science at high schools.
- ECE Visiting committee for The University of Texas College of Engineering.
- Serving on University of Texas (UT) Commission 125, shaping UT’s educational future for the next 25 years.
- An invited speaker nationwide (many Universities, IEEE, WITI, etc…)
