NEWS RELEASE, 10/25/99 UC Berkeley's Robert Scalapino, a world expert on Asian studies, to be honored this week

By José Rodríguez, Development Communications

BERKELEY-- An array of dignitaries and academic, business and political figures from the Bay Area and abroad will be on hand at a dinner in San Francisco this week honoring Robert Scalapino, a noted scholar considered to be the dean of Asian studies in the United States. Renowned for his work on East Asia in a career spanning five decades, Scalapino taught at the University of California, Berkeley, beginning in 1949. He established the Institute for East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley and cemented the university's reputation as a premier center of teaching and research on Asia. Dr. Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will chair the event, which also celebrates Scalapino's 80th birthday. Ogata, a former student of Scalapino's, heads an honorary committee for the event that includes former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, as well as Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand. In the process of building UC Berkeley's Asia resources, Scalapino educated generations of students about the complexity of cultures and politics across the Pacific Rim. "Professor Scalapino is not only one of Berkeley's greatest resources, he occupies a high place in the landscape of American academia," said Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl. "By promoting solid scholarship, cooperation and understanding, he has had a profound impact on the generations of Americans who, after World War II, became more aware of Asia's significance." Scalapino is the author of more than 500 articles and 38 books or monographs on Asian politics and U.S.-Asia policy, and he has served as an advisor on these issues to heads of state and key policy makers around the world, including three U.S. presidents. His visits to Asia are numerous, including 37 to the People's Republic of China and many others to Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. He twice headed an American delegation to Korea, and he served as a visiting lecturer at Peking University in 1981, 1985 and 1999. In honor of Scalapino's 80th birthday, the campus is naming a portion of its new East Asian Library and Studies Center in his honor. The center will draw together under one roof the Institute of East Asian Studies, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the East Asian Library. It will create one of the world's strongest environments for East Asian studies and attract to UC Berkeley future generations of faculty, students, and leaders. The event will be held Wed., Oct. 27, at the Sheraton Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery Street, at Market Street. ###