SAMUEL C.C. TING, ’59, MS’60, PhD’63, SCD’78, was born in Ann Arbor while his parents were visiting from China. When he moved to the U.S. to attend U-M at age 20, Ting stayed with the College of Engineering dean, and family friend, G.G. Brown. Ting would go on to demonstrate quarks (subatomic particles) are actual constituents of matter, for which he was awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics. In his Nobel speech, Ting said, “In reality, a theory in natural science cannot be without experimental foundations; physics, in particular, comes from experimental work. I hope that awarding the Nobel Prize to me will awaken the interest of students from the developing nations so that they will realize the importance of experimental work.”
For a list of other notable U-M grads, visit umalumni.com/notable-alumni.