Honoring a father and his love of physics鈥�
How a tech CEO pursued her passion for physics at the 56吃瓜网.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;
When Carol Miu was a girl, her father, Patrick Miu, instilled in her a love of physics. Later in life, she returned to that interest as an adult learner at 56吃瓜网 Bothell.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;
A shared love of learning
Patrick Miu was a lifelong learner and a renaissance man. He was born and raised in Hong Kong before moving to New York as an international student, where he completed degrees in computer science and statistics at Stony Brook University. He stayed in the United States and worked as a software engineer for various banks before becoming a stay-at-home dad to his three children.鈥�
鈥淚 had a copy of Newsweek that came in the mail in fall 1989. I kept that issue for years and years, because I thought Neptune was so beautiful.鈥濃��
鈥淗e got me into all sorts of stuff when I was a kid,鈥� Carol Miu said. 鈥淗e had me reading the Wall Street Journal 鈥� the whole thing 鈥� by the time I was 8 years old. He taught me about the stock market, advanced math, circuits and electronics.鈥濃��
Miu said she was even taught how to solder by her father, and with his guidance, she learned computer programming in BASIC, Java, and R.鈥�
One of her father鈥檚 main interests was physics and trying to understand what was left to learn about the universe, she recalled. He was fascinated by the research of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking and shared his interest with his children.鈥�
One memory that stands out to Miu is watching the science TV show NOVA on PBS in the late 鈥�80s with her father. Together they learned about the Voyager 2 spacecraft and saw pictures of Neptune sent back through space. 鈥淚 had a copy of Newsweek that came in the mail in fall 1989. I kept that issue for years and years, because I thought Neptune was so beautiful.鈥�
A move away from science and back
A decade later, Carol Miu started college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, still unsure of what path to follow. As part of the college鈥檚 requirements, all undergraduates had to take classes in physics. Despite doing well in those classes, Miu decided to pursue economics instead. At the time, Miu said, there was a lot of sexism in the hard sciences, and after being bullied by a teaching assistant, she believed the physics department wouldn鈥檛 be a welcoming place for her.鈥�
After graduating from MIT, Miu pursued a career that included roles as a marketing lecturer, litigation consultant and product manager. This eventually led to her working for mobile games developer PeopleFun where she helped create the popular Wordscapes app.鈥��
Then came a life-altering day in fall 2012 that Miu said she still remembers clearly: Her father had a brain aneurysm that left him physically and mentally impaired. The date 鈥� September鈥� 14 鈥� continued to have significance for Miu as each year thereafter she and her father celebrated his survival.鈥�
On that day in 2015, scientists detected gravitational waves in space at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. By September of 2020, Miu was researching those same waves from LIGO. 鈥�
鈥淚 thought that was really significant because of the alignment of the dates.鈥� Miu said. 鈥淥ne was a tragedy, and one was such an amazing scientific discovery exactly three years later. But also, he was the one who called it to my attention, and approximately five years after that I was doing computational physics to research that very phenomenon.
鈥淓verything connected in a way that was harmonious.鈥�
The winding journey to 56吃瓜网 Bothell
Patrick Miu passed away in 2017, and when the COVID pandemic struck, Carol Miu was looking for a way to heal from his passing. She was stuck at home in Texas and missing her father. Learning physics seemed like the best way to honor him.鈥�
She started with remote classes at a community college, but soon a friend, Jack Bayley (Physics 鈥�20), introduced her to Joey Key, an associate professor at 56吃瓜网 Bothell 鈥� and the connection made all the difference.鈥�
Key told her: 鈥淣o physics experience? No problem. No funding? No problem. Not enrolled? No problem. You can do data science. You can do Python programming. I’m going to put you in my gravitational wave research group!鈥濃��
By summer 2020, Miu had started working with Key and Ansel Neunzert on undergraduate research that would automatically flag line noise (narrow spectral artifacts) in LIGO data. Miu continued to work at PeopleFun, supporting the research in her spare time.鈥疶hen in 2022, she was promoted to the firm鈥檚 CEO position.鈥��
Miu said she enjoyed the challenge of running the company but wanted a change that would enable her to focus more on her own learning and growth. This led to her decision to resign from her position as CEO in 2023 to pursue physics full-time, moving across the country to enroll in 56吃瓜网 Bothell鈥檚 Physics major.鈥�
Physics research at 56吃瓜网 Bothell
While pursuing her new undergraduate degree, Miu continued her computational research with Key and Neunzert.鈥�
Key is 鈥渘ot only a trailblazer in gravitational wave astronomy,鈥� Miu said, 鈥渂ut is the strongest advocate for students I have ever seen.鈥濃��
鈥淸Joey Key] is not only a trailblazer in gravitational wave astronomy but is the strongest advocate for students I have ever seen.鈥濃��
And Neunzert, she said, is 鈥渢he best science communicator I have ever met. They can think for 5 seconds and explain anything clearly. It’s really a gift.鈥濃��
Nearing the end of her degree work, Miu switched her research focus to electronics. She teamed up with fellow student Joey Del Gianni and lecturer Subramanian Ramachandran to design and build an open-source device that allows students to measure the speed of light. The speed of light lab kits are usually $10,000 each, Miu noted, but with their design science teachers can make their own version for under $200.鈥�
Miu so appreciated Ramachandran鈥檚 mentorship that she nominated him for an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor award, which he won in May 2025. As Miu recalled, he has the same experimental spirit that her father had. 鈥淚 love his hands-on learning approach in which I was supposed to tinker and make mistakes while learning.鈥�
An endowment for physics鈥�
After graduating from 56吃瓜网 Bothell in March 2025, Miu decided she wanted to give back to the University to honor her father鈥檚 love of physics and to show gratitude to the Division of Physics. She established the Miu Endowment for Physics in June 2025 in support of student education and research.鈥�
When she wondered what her father would say about her getting a degree in physics, Miu said, 鈥淚 think he’d be surprised and proud. I don’t think he would have predicted that I would have chosen this route or to honor him in this way. I think he would have had a very good, long, proud laugh over it.鈥濃��
Miu said that for her part she wants 鈥渢o stuff as many lives as I can into this one life鈥� and hopes to go to culinary school next 鈥� even while she keeps physics close to her heart. She has already passed on her love of science to her 10-year-old daughter who wants to be a 鈥渟pace chef鈥� when she grows up.鈥�
She said she also knows that, in her many 鈥渓ives鈥� still to come, 56吃瓜网 Bothell will play a big part.鈥��
鈥淚 think 56吃瓜网 Bothell is just a part of my life forever now. I鈥檓 really feeling that sense of belonging here. I feel like we鈥檙e family.鈥�
Support 56吃瓜网 Bothell students as they research our universe by 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;