Professor Ong received his B.A. from the University of California, Davis, a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington, and the Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. A prolific scholar, Professor Ong has authored or edited 9 books and published over 70 journal articles and papers, including the influential and often-cited State of Asian American series of policy-related studies for which he served as Research Director. Professor Ong has taught key service courses for both Asian American Studies and Urban Planning at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In particular, Professor Ong has offered courses that are multidisciplinary and that are engaged with community-based research. He has provided tremendous service and leadership for the UCLA campus, including directing the Lewis Center and for many years chairing the Center’s Faculty Advisory Committee.

Colleagues and students enthusiastically endorsed Professor Ong for the award, and a faculty colleague stated,

“Professor Ong has developed through designing and teaching various courses … a set of ideas that effectively capture and articulate the core concerns that both shaped Asian American Studies traditionally and open up new possibilities for the challenges that we face in the field today: multidisciplinarity, diversity, and engaged scholarship.”