Celebrating Asian American Heritage Month: Ervin Yen, first Asian American in Oklahoma legislature

Ervin Yen, born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1954, moved to northwest Oklahoma City in 1959, where he graduated from Putnam City High School and then a BS in zoology from University of Oklahoma.  He went on to get a medical degree from OU College of Medicine.

He changed his party affiliation to Republican in 2009 and ran for the District 40 state senate seat in 2014.  He won the election in the general election, becoming the first Asian American in the Oklahoma legislature history.

He lost his re-election bid in the primaries to an anti-vaxxer in 2018.  Yen changed his affiliation to Independent to run for governor in the 2022 election, citing the rise of COVID-19 misinformation, Trump's election lies, and the GOP's lack of response to COVID-19.

Celebrating Asian-American Heritage Month: Leroy Chiao, Taiwanese-American astronaut

Leroy Chiao, born August 28, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Taiwanese immigrants, has traveled into space aboard the space shuttles three times.

He has won numerous NASA awards, the De la Vaulx Medal, and has been inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame.

Happy birthday, astronaut Kjell Lindgren!

Kjell Lindgren, born January 23, 1973 in Taipei, Taiwan, is a NASA astronaut and has spent 141 days on the International Space Station.  He went into space aboard Soyuz TMA-17M in July 2015 as part of Expeditions 44 and 45.  He returned to Earth in December 2015.

During the mission, he played the bagpipes aboard the ISS, a first.