Won Ng MS ’60, PhD ’70
When his youngest granddaughter, Aly, enrolled at USC, Won Ng MS ’60, PhD ’70 offered her this piece of advice: “Whatever you do, do your best.”
That simple motto has brought Ng great success over the course of a life that took him from rural China to Southern California. His journey sounds like the plotline of a novel: a Chinese teenager who’s never seen a light bulb arrives in post-WWII Los Angeles, where his love for science and math propels him to a brilliant career in laser research.
Of his high school years in Los Angeles, Won says, “I got good grades, but I never thought of myself going to university. I would have been satisfied to work in a good restaurant.”
But those good grades caught the eye of Won’s high school counselor, who suggested that he set his sights higher. “He told me I should apply to UCLA, since tuition there was only $42 a semester.”
While earning his undergraduate degree in engineering at UCLA, Won studied with a professor who worked at Hughes Aircraft. The professor was so impressed with Won that he urged him to apply for a Hughes Master Fellowship, a work-study fellowship for a master’s degree at approved universities.
“He told me he’d write my recommendation,” Won says. “As it turned out, he was the chair of the program!” That fellowship opportunity marked the beginning of Won’s 30-year career at Hughes Aircraft.
Because of its well-established engineering programs, Won decided to pursue a masters of electrical engineering at USC. In his second year, he took two classes from Zohrab Kaprielian, a young professor who had recently joined the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He did well in those classes, so Professor Kaprielian encouraged and advised him to set his sights higher and pursue a PhD. Widely recognized for turning the USC Viterbi School into a nationally ranked engineering school, Professor Kaprielian would later become USC Viterbi’s fourth dean, as well as USC’s provost and executive vice president in the 1970s.
After receiving his master’s degree from USC Viterbi in 1960, Won returned to work at Hughes, where he and his colleagues made a groundbreaking discovery in the emerging field of laser research: Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS), which greatly enhanced understanding of lasers and their potential application in multiple fields.
In the summer of 1965, Professor Kaprielian called Won to ask if he’d come back to USC. “He told me he had a place for me. When I told him I had a wife and two kids to support, he assured me that they’d provide a stipend.”
Won took a leave of absence from Hughes and returned to USC to pursue his doctorate and work with the top-notch professors Kaprielian had recruited.
“It was a transformational time in engineering at USC,” Won recalls. “I took classes with these new professors who were from all over the world.”
He also built one of the first labs in the recently completed Vivian Hall. He spent much of his time there, giving his two young sons plenty of opportunities to wander the campus. On one occasion, they fulfilled a request from famed USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux to serve as bat boys during a practice.
When he returned to Hughes, Won worked on numerous laser projects until he retired as the chief scientist of the Laser Engineering Laboratory in 1989. And although he graduated from USC more than 50 years ago, Won remains deeply committed to the university that he says “changed the trajectory of my life.” In appreciation, he and his wife Anna have established the Won K. Ng and Anna Ng Endowed Scholarship. This planned gift, which includes direct contributions from Won’s retirement plan, is designed to support first-generation engineering students with financial need.
“I remember where I came from, the tough times during World War II and learning what I needed to survive in America, all by myself,” he says. “I hope I can pay USC back for all the opportunities it’s given me.”