The youngest of three, he was born in a middle class Indonesian family. After living in Indonesia for 18 years barely speaking English, he came to US for the first time to pursue undergraduate education at Purdue University. While in West Lafeyette, he joined a small Indonesian student church and in his senior year had the privilege to lead the church which by then had grown in numbers and become more diverse. His life did not quite go exactly as he planned. Working in industry was his plan, but after not being able to land a job offer, he decided to go to Cornell University and enrolled in Master of Engineering program. Over there he found his love for science while working for a PhD student for his master's project, and decided to get himself deeper into science by joining PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University. After finishing his PhD, he was fortunate to find opportunity to work in role that fit his passions in science and in helping people. He works at Merck & Co., Inc (or Merck Sharp Dohme), a global pharmaceutical company, in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering department (CMSE) – an applied science organization which supports Merck manufacturing sites worldwide in the area of complex troubleshooting. In this capacity he interacts frequently with people from different background as he helped them identify the problem, develop new knowledge, and implement the solution.

On Feb 8th, he will give talk on leadership by sharing some of the leadership principles he learns throughout his life, and some of the traits he thinks possessed by leaders he admires. With his exposure to "East" and "West" cultures, he will also share his perspective on how someone with Asian "education and background" like his could influence his/her career development in corporate America. The title of his talk is "Out of Comfort Zone". Through this talk he hopes the audience take the opportunity to think through the principles, and apply them as they see fit, as they pursue their dream career.