The next episode in my father's great adventure occurred after graduation from medical school in 1947, when he was given an opportunity to come to the United States to do a medical internship. There just happened to be a fellowship with one last place for a doctor from China to train in the United States. Miraculously, the money was found, the travel arrangements were made and, lo and behold, he was able to cross the great waters and arrive in San Francisco with a violin, a little suitcase and $30 of spending money to embark on his career as a medical intern at Wesley Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Once in Chicago though, his interests quickly turned to science. He was influenced by a well-known physiologist named John Gray and received a research fellowship which quickly lead to his completing the requirements for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in two years at Northwestern University. So his course was set in the direction of science. However, science had certain ambiguities which my father wrote about humorously in his memoirs. He says at one point, "I was embarked on science...but what is science? Science is what scientists do. Who are scientists? Well, scientists seem to be those who do science. That is the truth. Well, what is the truth? Well, that is what one learns from science."

So armed with this clear vision of what he was going to do, he began his scientific career which led to a great flourishing. He spent a brief time at Yale before proceeding to Downstate Medical Center at the State University of New York, which was his happy intellectual and collegial home for many, many years until retirement. The adventure continued in many ways: research on high altitude physiology in the Andes, space physiology with NASA and work with colleagues around the world: in New York, Oxford, Goettingen, and Stockholm. He was highly productive: writing books, teaching medical students, carrying out a range of research experiments on the regulation of respiration as well as being able to meet with leaders from various walks of life.

However, in 1972 his adventure took a very different turn. Unexpectedly, my father was invited to go to China by the Chinese Medical Association as head of a delegation of scientists and physicians to study healthcare and medical practice there. This was very much a defining moment for my father. In the early 1970s, ping-pong diplomacy had started with Henry Kissinger. Only a few months later, an invitation came from China asking my fatherto go as well. It was this event, I think, that awakened in him a great longing for and interest in China. Recall that my father couldn't wait to go to that land where the exotic teacher with blue eyes had come from. But somehow in 1972 his story changed. His attention shifted towards the East, as he interested himself in China and her medical and healthcare issues.

And who wouldn't be interested in this field? Many of my father's experiments had to do with breathing and blood. But in Chinese medicine, there was a different kind of circulation which had to do with vital energy or ch'i which had the connotation of breath, an association obviously interesting to someone interested in the physiology of respiration. This energy was said to flow through a system of channels in the body which could not be seen with the naked eye. So there was a great deal in Chinese medical practice and theory to pique the interest of a scientist like my father, particularly because of their richness and scope. The literature on Chinese medicine spanned thousands of years. It was a social and historical as well as medical phenomenon. This larger canvas, I believe was intellectually appealing to my father who was in a unique position to delve into subject, having been a product both of the Chinese and American environment, and having been a product both of Western and Asian scientific and medical traditions.