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Oakland Space Center Honors Former U.C. Chancellor Tien

Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien. file photo.

By Tom Lee

Dr. Chang-Lin Tien, former chancellor and current NEC Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has been honored with a theater named after him. The August 19 grand opening of the Chabot Space and Science Center (CSSC) will unveil the Tien MegaDome Theater to the general public.

The 210-seat, dome-screened auditorium will be one of the main attractions at the new Space and Science Center located in the Oakland hills. The theater will house the only 70 mm, 8-perforation projection system in the Bay Area, allowing abstract concepts such as motion, time and scope to be easily understood on a surround screen.

Having served as the seventh Chancellor of U.C. Berkeley for seven years, Tien made history as the first Asian American to head a major U.S. research university. The decision to name the dome theater after him came after a campaign effort led by the Asian American and U.C. Berkeley communities.

Tien’s name has also been given to the International Series 3643 asteroid, which is now known as the Tien Chang-Lin Star, and a 300,000 metric ton oil tanker titled the Chang-Lin Tien.

“As a student and educator for over 40 years, I feel very deeply honored by having the megadome science theater in the new Chabot Space and Science Center named after me,” Tien said.

The goal of the center is to make astronomy and science accessible to the Bay Area’s vastly diverse population, especially minority and low-income students, said CSSC Vice Chair of Program Jean Quan.

“Providing access to high quality science, math and technology programs to all students is the civil rights challenge of the new century,” she said.

It is fitting, therefore, that the theater was named after Tien, who was “a poor immigrant student who became a scientist and led one of the nation’s greatest universities,” and who was an “important voice for affirmative action and equal access to higher education,” Quan explained.

Through a three-year National Science Foundation grant program, CSSC will work with middle and high school girls in the Oakland area to encourage more women to enter the science field in order to bridge the gender gap in the technology and astronomy fields. The center will also offer community outreach programs by going into local communities with portable inflatable planetariums. Young people who are unable or cannot afford the trip to the center will have exhibits brought to them.

“The day we open is only the beginning,” said CSSC Executive Director Mike Reynolds. “We hope to expand our community advisory groups to involve every part of our community in our programs.”

With the Oakland Unified School District as one of CSSC’s main sponsors, educators and public officials hope the center will greatly inspire and benefit the district’s students. “Our vision is that the first human on Mars will be an Oakland Public School student,” boasted Councilman Dick Spees, founding chair of CSSC.

In addition to the theater, the 86,000 square foot center will feature an observatory, a planetarium, as well as multiple unique exhibits showcasing astronomy and space sciences.

The center will feature state-of-the-art facilities and innovative exhibits through a rare partnership with the Smithsonian Institute. CSSC is only one of 29 Smithsonian affiliates in the country and the only one to concentrate on astronomy.

The Chabot Space and Science Center started out as a public observatory in 1883. The observatory’s transit telescope measured time, serving as the official timekeeper of the whole Bay Area for decades. Throughout the years, the facility moved and expanded, only to hit a snag in 1977, when seismic safety concerns prevented students from visiting the center.

A committee was formed in 1989 by the City of Oakland, the Oakland Unified School District, the East Bay Regional Park District and the East Bay Astronomical Society to rebuild the facility to its former prominence. After many years in the developmental phase, 13 acres of regional parkland were chosen as the new site for CSSC, and in mid-1998, construction began.

Alongside Tien, another prominent Bay Area leader will be honored. CSSC will name the north building, which houses telescopes and the Challenger space lab, after former Congressman Ron Dellums.