As I know many of you likely knew Prof. Lay Nam Chang, had a class with him, or perhaps your diploma bears his signature (one of mine does), I thought I would pass along that the students in his PHYS 2306 class were notified that he sadly passed away from complications of COVID-19:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VirginiaTech/comments/ka5toy/professor_chang_a_...
Prof. Chang was an immensely important person to the VT community and in the reorganization/founding of the College of Science. He was a respected colleague and he will be sorely missed.
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Note that this is not "Roger" Chang, who I know a lot of engineers had for physics and other courses.
Nonetheless, RIP.
Important point, thanks. As far as I know, Roger is fine.
Holy shit I was about to be devastated. Roger is an Angel, a Saint, a scholar, and a hero, all in one human.
I remember one day he apologized for making a math error while going over a practice problem in the previous lecture. He turned to the class and said "I'm very sorry, I was passing a kidney stone, and was having trouble focusing. It won't happen again."
If I every have to pass a kidney stone, I'm not leaving my house except to see a doctor, and I will be whining like a baby the entire time and I will not apologize for it. I'm sure as hell not going to the office to deal with a bunch of immature college aged kids.
Anyways, sorry for derailing the thread.
I was throwing up, laying on the floor and going to the ER. He was doing what now?
Teaching system dynamics. It was a 3000 level Mechanical Engineering course.
Sure, Jesus was he Superman.
I've luckily avoided having one, but my wifey as passed a few. She got dilaudid one time and that only gave her 5 minutes of relief before she felt the pain again. I can't imagine actually focusing in a dynamics class trying to pass one.
I'll take the opening to chime in with my own Roger anecdote.
It was maybe the first week of PHYS 2305 and he did a math calculation in his head that involved some cosine or something like that. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds and then rattled off a number to several decimal points that was correct, of course. I swear half the auditorium looked up at the ceiling thinking that he had planted the answer on a poster on the ceiling. Amazing man.
Heartbreaking.
I had a work-study job in his office all four years I was at Tech. He was such a kind, gentle man who always made time for a nobody student like me. This is absolutely devastating news and a massive loss for the VT community.
Rest In Peace Dr. Chang.
He was a professor in a study abroad program that I did. Through his connections we were able to tour CERN, which was a great experience.
The program included science majors and non-science majors (myself), but he had a way of communicating that made the subject matter just as interesting for everyone.
Rest in peace
Awesome guy, interacted with him a bit when my PI was an Associate Dean in the COS. Absolutely instrumental in allowing Tech to start specialized majors within the COS like nanoscience, nanomedicine, polymer chemistry, medicinal chemistry, three different neuroscience majors, and the integrated science curriculum.
Had Dr. Chang for Quantum Mechanics way back when. Great professor. He will be missed.