1998 International Travel Fellowship
Pauline Y. Lau, PhD, will receive the 20th annual award, sponsored by Becton Dickinson Vacutainer Systems, Becton Dickinson and Co.
Dr. Pauline Lau was born in Harbin, China, and moved to Taiwan with her parents when she was very young. After graduating from the National Taiwan University in Medical Technology, she came to the United States. She earned a Master’s degree from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and started working in both hospitals and research organizations, all while raising a family. During the next 15 years, Dr. Lau lived in five different cities, worked for seven different hospitals, and returned to school again to earn a doctoral degree in analytical chemistry.
After graduation, Dr. Lau chose to further her career in the diagnostic industry. She has worked for two diagnostic companies, E.I. DuPont, Inc. and Boehringer Mannheim Corporation (now Roche Diagnostics). In the last 10 years, she has served in many aspects of the diagnostic industry, including research and development, technology transfer, product support, and marketing. Currently, she is the Manager of Scientific Affairs in the Laboratory Diagnostic Division of Roche Diagnostics.
Dr. Lau is active in professional associations. She has been an officer for the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly AACC) local chapters and divisions. Currently, she serves as Chair-elect in the Management Sciences Division. She also volunteers her time by serving on several subcommittees of the NCCLS.
Dr. Lau is also active in Chinese-American organizations. She is past-president of the North American Chinese Clinical Chemists Association. She organized the successful Sino-American Conference in Clinical Laboratory Management, held in Beijing in 1996 and in Shanghai in 1997. This conference has become a vehicle to promote the exchange and collaboration in diagnostic medicine between the US and China. Her understanding of the Chinese culture and language has greatly facilitated the success of the program. She always tells others that it is her life dream and her privilege to be able to bring together her birth country, China, and her adopted country, the United States. In the future, she would like to extend her experiences to further this type of collaboration to the rest of the Asian countries.