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{{Short description|Chinese-American businessman and computer engineer}}
{{Western name order|Wang An}}
{{Other people|Wang An|Wang An (born 1958)}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| native_name       = 王安
| name              = An Wang
| image             = An Wang in 1979.jpg
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| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1920|02|07}}
| birth_place       = [[Shanghai]], [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1990|03|24|1920|02|07}}
| death_place       = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| resting_place     = 
| workplaces        = [[Wang Laboratories]]
| alma_mater        = [[Shanghai Jiao Tong University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])<br /> [[Harvard University]] ([[PhD]])
| thesis_title      = 
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| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = Development of [[Magnetic-core memory|magnetic core memory]].
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}}

'''An Wang''' ({{lang-zh|t=王安|p=Wáng Ān}}; February 7, 1920 – March 24, 1990) was a Chinese-American computer engineer and inventor, and cofounder of computer company [[Wang Laboratories]], which was known primarily for its dedicated word processing machines. An Wang was an important contributor to the development of [[magnetic-core memory]].<ref name=immrev>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=j0NTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j4QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6000%2C4121837 |work=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City, Utah) |agency=UPI |title=Immigrant who revolutionized computer industry dies at 70 |date=March 25, 1990 |page=A11}}</ref>

== Early life and career ==
A native of [[Kunshan]] County in [[Suzhou, Jiangsu|Suzhou]] (Soochow) Prefecture, he was born in [[Shanghai]], [[China]].<ref name=immrev/> His father taught English at an elementary school outside Shanghai, while his mother Zen Wan (Chien) Wang was a homemaker. An Wang graduated from [[Shanghai Jiao Tong University]] with a degree in [[electrical engineering]] in 1940. He immigrated to the [[United States]] in June 1945 to attend [[Harvard University]] for graduate school, earning a PhD in applied physics in 1948.<ref name=immrev/> After graduation, he worked at Harvard with [[Howard Aiken]] on the design of the [[Harvard Mark IV|Mark IV]], Aiken's first fully electronic computer. Wang coinvented the pulse transfer controlling device with Way-Dong Woo, a schoolmate from China who fell ill before their patent was issued. The new device implemented ''write-after-read'' which made magnetic core memory possible. Harvard reduced its commitment to computer research in 1951, prompting Wang to start his own engineering business.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://tech.sina.com.cn/other/2004-03-17/1124334876.shtml |title=王安（An Wang）：王安公司创始人 |accessdate=2009-08-03 |archive-date=2008-01-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125092853/http://tech.sina.com.cn/other/2004-03-17/1124334876.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://people.ccidnet.com/art/2947/20050829/320975_6.html |title=巨商王安：上海交大高材生 在哈佛大学深造（6） |accessdate=2013-12-30 |archive-date=2013-12-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232628/http://people.ccidnet.com/art/2947/20050829/320975_6.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Wang Laboratories ==
Wang founded [[Wang Laboratories]] in June 1951 as a [[sole proprietorship]]. The first years were lean and Wang raised {{US$|long=no|50000}} [[working capital]] by selling one third of the company to a machine tools manufacturer [[Warner & Swasey Company]].

In 1955, when the [[core memory]] patent was issued, Wang sold it to [[IBM]] for {{US$|long=no|500000}} and incorporated Wang Laboratories with Ge-Yao Chu, a schoolmate. The company grew slowly and in 1964 sales reached {{US$|long=no|1000000}}. Wang began making desktop electronic calculators with digital displays, including a centralised calculator with remote terminals for group use.

By 1970, the company had sales of {{US$|long=no|27 million}} and 1,400 employees. They began manufacturing [[word processor]]s in 1974, copying the already popular Xerox Redactron word processor, a single-user, cassette-based product.

In 1976, they started marketing a multi-user, display-based product, based on the [[Zilog Z80]] processor. Typical installations had a master unit (supplying disk storage) connected to intelligent diskless slaves which the operators used. Connections were via dual coax using [[differential signaling]] in an 11-bit asynchronous [[ASCII]] format clocked at 4.275&nbsp;MHz. This product became the market leader in the word processing industry. In addition to calculators and word processors, Wang's company diversified into [[minicomputer]]s in the early 1970s. The [[Wang 2200]] was one of the first desktop computers with a large [[CRT display]] and ran a fast hardwired [[BASIC]] interpreter. The [[Wang VS]] system was a multiuser [[minicomputer]] whose [[instruction set]] was very close to the design of IBM's [[System/370]]. It was not binary-compatible because [[Processor register|register]] usage conventions and [[system call]] interfaces were different. The [[Wang VS]] serial terminals could be used in data processing mode and word processing mode. They were user-programmable in data-processing mode and used the same word processing software as the earlier dedicated word processing systems.

In 1984, Wang and his family owned about 55 percent of the company stock, and [[Forbes magazine|''Forbes'' magazine]], estimating his worth at {{US$|long=no|1.6 billion}}, ranked him as the fifth richest American.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oliver |first=Myrna |date=1990-03-25 |title=An Wang; Founded Computer Company |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-25-mn-214-story.html |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>

Wang Laboratories, which in 1989 once employed over 30,000 people, was headquartered in [[Tewksbury, Massachusetts]] and later [[Lowell, Massachusetts]]. When Wang looked to retire from actively running his company in 1986, he insisted upon handing over the corporate reins to his son Fred Wang. Hard times ensued for the company and the elder Wang was eventually forced to remove his son in 1989.

== Later years ==
An Wang also founded the [[Wang Institute of Graduate Studies]] in [[Tyngsborough, Massachusetts]], which offered a graduate program in software engineering. He made substantial donations to this organization, including the proceeds of his autobiography, ''Lessons''. However, enrollment remained low, and in 1987, after nearly a decade of operation, Wang decided to discontinue funding the institution and transferred ownership of the campus to [[Boston University]].

An Wang also made a substantial contribution for the restoration of a Boston landmark, which was then called the Metropolitan Theatre. The "Met" was renamed in 1983 as [[The Wang Theatre]], and the Metropolitan Center became known as the [[Wang Center for the Performing Arts]]. Wang donated $4 million to [[Massachusetts General Hospital]]'s ambulatory care center, which was renamed to the Wang Building.<ref name="Wang Building">{{cite web|url=http://www2.massgeneral.org/history/catalogueDetails.asp?catalogueNo=50 |title=Wang Building |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128132641/http://www2.massgeneral.org/history/catalogueDetails.asp?catalogueNo=50 |archivedate=2015-01-28 }}</ref>

Wang was one of twelve recipients of the [[Medal of Liberty]] in 1986. He was inducted into the [[National Inventors Hall of Fame]] in 1988.<ref name="Inventors">{{cite web|url=http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/149.html |title=Inventor profile - An Wang |publisher=[[National Inventors Hall of Fame]] |accessdate={{Format date|2011|1|15}} |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205231420/http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/149.html |archivedate=2010-12-05 }}</ref> The An Wang Middle School in Lowell, Massachusetts, is named in his honor, as is the An Wang Professorship of Computer Science and [[Electrical Engineering]] at [[Harvard University]], held by [[Roger W. Brockett]] and [[Hanspeter Pfister]], the An Wang Professorship of Computer Science at [[Brown University]], held by [[John E. Savage]], and the Wang Professorship of Cognitive and Neural Systems at [[Boston University]], held by [[Stephen Grossberg]]; see sites.bu.edu/steveg.

An Wang died of [[cancer]] in 1990.<ref>{{cite news |title=Computer Giant Wang was a `genius' |work=The Daily Item |location=Lynn, Massachusetts |date=March 26, 1990 |page=3 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-item-obituary-for-an-wang/171118171/ |access-date=April 25, 2025}}</ref> He and his wife, Lorraine (Chiu) Wang, lived in [[Lincoln, Massachusetts]]. Lorraine Wang died on March 1, 2016, at [[Emerson Hospital]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Marquard|first1=Bryan|title=Lorraine Wang, 95, philanthropist who helped establish Wang Center|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2016/03/06/lorraine-wang-lincoln-philanthropist-played-key-role-establishing-wang-center/w3Rt1YcVoBoU9URMNaorAN/story.html|accessdate=March 10, 2016|work=Boston Globe|date=March 7, 2016}}</ref> They had three children.

== Aphorisms ==
An Wang is known for a number of pithy [[aphorism]]s summing up principles based on his experience in business and life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.famous-quotes.com/?page_id=11505|title=Famous Quotes by An Wang (3 Quotations) – Famous Quotes|website=www.famous-quotes.com}}</ref><ref name=brainyquote>{{Cite web|url=https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/an-wang-quotes|title=An Wang Quotes|website=BrainyQuote}}</ref> Examples include:

* "Success is more a function of consistent common sense than of genius."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wang |first1=An |last2=Linden |first2=Eugene |title=Lessons : An Autobiography |date=September 22, 1986 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=9780201094008 |page=11}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[The Wang Center for the Performing Arts]]
* [[History of the Chinese in Boston]]
* [[Wang's factor-combining method]]
* [[List of pioneers in computer science]]

{{-}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.thocp.net/biographies/wang_an.html Short biography of An Wang] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230072036/http://www.thocp.net/biographies/wang_an.html |date=2019-12-30 }}

{{Library resources box
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=== Patents ===

* {{US patent|2708722}} "Pulse transfer controlling device", filed October 21, 1949, issued May 17, 1955
* {{US patent|3402285}} "Calculating Apparatus" (using logarithms for calculation), filed September 22, 1964, issued September 17, 1968
* {{US patent|4145739}} "Distributed data processing system", filed June 20, 1977, issued March 20, 1979.
* {{US patent|4,294,550}} Ideographic typewriter. October 13, 1981
* {{US patent|4,297,042}} Helical print head mechanism. October 27, 1981
* {{US patent|4,386,864}} Selective paper insertion and feeding means for individual sheet printing apparatus. June 7, 1983
* {{US patent|4,489,419}} Data communication system. December 18, 1984
* {{US patent|4,508,463}} High density dot matrix printer. April 2, 1985
* {{US patent|4,514,063}} Scanner document positioning device. April 30, 1985
* {{US patent|4,587,633}} Management communication terminal system. May 6, 1986
* {{US patent|4,595,921}} Method of polling to ascertain service needs. June 17, 1986
* {{US patent|4,638,118}} Writing pad. January 20, 1987
* {{US patent|4,712,795}} Game racket. December 15, 1987
* {{US patent|5,129,061}} Composite document accessing and processing terminal with graphic and text data buffers. July 7, 1992
* {{US patent|5,334,976}} Keyboard with finger-actuable and stylus-actuable keys. August 2, 1994

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, An}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:American businesspeople in the computer industry]]
[[Category:American inventors]]
[[Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Chinese electrical engineers]]
[[Category:American electrical engineers]]
[[Category:Businesspeople in the software industry]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Lowell, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Shanghai]]
[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients]]
[[Category:Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Engineers from Shanghai]]
[[Category:Wang Laboratories]]
[[Category:National Chiao Tung University (Shanghai) alumni]]