Xiangzhong Yang

Professor Xiangzhong "Jerry" Yang (simplified Chinese: 杨向中; traditional Chinese: 楊向中; pinyin: Yáng Xiàngzhōng) (July 1959 – 5 February 2009) was a leading American biotechnology scientist, and stem cell research advocate. In 1999 he was credited with creating the first cloned farm animal in the United States – a cow called "Amy".^[1][2]

Born (July 31, 1959) and raised in Wei County, Hebei, China, Yang attended Beijing Agricultural University (currently China Agricultural University). Upon graduation, he took the entrance exam for graduate study and ranked number one among all applicants in his field. He was therefore awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Ministry of Agriculture to study in the US. He emigrated to the United States in 1983 where he received his PhD under Professor Robert Foote (http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-foote7-2008nov07-story.html) in 1991. Yang became a research faculty member at Cornell University and received multiple grants from the Cornell Biotechnology Center and Easter AI (Genex; http://genex.crinet.com/).%5B%5D In 1996 he joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut as an associate professor, and in 2001, was appointed founding director of the University's Center for Regenerative Biology.^[1]

In 1996 Yang was first diagnosed with salivary gland adenocarcinoma, a condition that would eventually claim his life. On February 5, 2009 he died at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 49.^[2] An obituary was published by the scientific magazine Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7235/full/458161a.html).

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