Stanford University

In August 1976, Chen-Pei submitted his thesis, completing his doctorate at Cornell. He and Yen-Sheng moved west to Palo Alto, CA, where Chen-Pei had accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Stanley N. Cohen, a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Stanford Medical School. They sold Chen-Pei’s Pontiac LeMonde convertible and purchased a forest green Audi Fox wagon. It was a more practical vehicle, and one that would serve them for many miles, and through several major life changes. The couple drove from Ithaca across the country along I-90, I-80 all the way west. They mapped out a route that would take them through several of the vast country’s many notable landmarks: Badlands National Monument, Mount Rushmore, the Corn Palace and Wall Drug in South Dakota; Yellowstone National Park; and a few visits with friends along the way, including Yen-Sheng’s high school classmate in Iowa. It was a memorable journey before the arrival of their first child, Peng-Chu Benjamin, in April 1977. Ben was also the first grandchild in both the Tu and Liu families.

The young family enjoyed the sunshine and good food in the Palo Alto area. Yen-Sheng took Benjamin back to Taipei to visit both sets of grandparents and Great Grandma Tu at the end of June 1977. Professionally, Yen-Sheng worked briefly (9/76 – 4/77) for Dr. Esther M. Lederberg in the Department of Microbiology at Stanford, where it was exciting to be at the forefront of a new era in molecular biology and medicine. Yen-Sheng and Chen-Pei’s second child, Chia-Yin Leslie, was born in February 1979. Yen-Sheng enjoyed motherhood very much while being a loving and dedicated wife to Chen-Pei.