Xing Zong is a 4th year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Physics at Duke University. Zong came to Duke in 2003 after receiving a B.S. in Physics from Nanjing University, where he was an active student leader.
At Duke, Zong has taken initiatives to become involved in University-wide activities. One platform where this is abundantly apparent is the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association (DCSSA), a campus-wide organization geared towards Duke’s Chinese community. In April 2005, Zong was elected President. Under his leadership, DCSSA coordinated the participation of the area universities and local community in the Chinese New Year Celebration. He has organized and implemented more than twenty events and programs to improve the relations between the University and larger communities through cultural understanding.
What’s especially noteworthy is DukeChina.Org website, which he launched in June 2005 with his close friend Wei Chen, a physics graduate student at Duke. The site, mostly in Chinese, highlights Chinese Duke alumni and professors, presents the university through stories and events, and guides prospective students through the application process. It has accumulated 600,000 hits since its inception.
As a rocket scientist, Zong’s passion also lies in writing and people. He has authored more than 20 articles in various Chinese newspapers and magazines. He tapped into XingTalk series when he interviewed Duke President Brodhead in advance of his first Asia trip. A Chinese translation of the interview was published in the widely circulated Freezing Point Weekly section in China Youth Daily Newspaper, and an English version ran in the online People’s Daily . Zong keeps his momentum since then and conducts more interesting interviews of Presidents in U.S. top universities, Nobel Laureates, business/law school deans and leading academicians and practitioners.
As Zong says, “My father gave me this name ‘Xing’ with great expectation as it stands for booming and thriving in Chinese language, but one thing he didn’t expect was that, after arriving in U.S., I found “Xing” had a surprising interpretation of the on-road sign crossing. Indeed, I stand at the cross road of two different cultures and eager to connect Uncle Sam and Red Dragon.” In February 2007, Zong was chosen to receive a Graduate Student Cook Society Award by the Samuel DuBois Cook Society at Duke University in recognition of his tireless efforts to enhance China-Duke understandings while forging connections between the two.
Zong was born in Yangzhou, a beautiful city with 2,500 years history in Jiangsu Province, China. He was selected as an exchange student on behalf of his hometown to visit Kent, WA when he was 18 years old and he gave a speech at the Kent City Council. Zong is an avid reader, a gourmet cook and a fan of various sports, especially basketball. He also enjoys traveling and watching movies.
