Lihua Wang

I was referred to THNK by May Lee.

When we observe children working to solve a problem that is “obviously” trivial or simple, it is horrific to realize how uncreative we adults have become and how traditions and stereotypes have shackled our minds for imagination and creativity. As someone who studied and worked in higher education for more than two decades, I have since been asking myself the question: what skills should our future generations acquire to tackle complex and unforeseeable problems and to shape a responsible and sustainable future?

As William Butler Yeats put it - "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." For this reason, I have been working on projects that explore new ways of teaching and learning for both children and college students. In one such project, I am working with friends to help prepare children for challenges lying ahead - Miracle of Music (MoM) is a cross-platform, cross-cultural family of interactive education programs designed to nurture creative intelligence and teach a broad range of important skills through music. I also look to build communities connecting musicians, teachers, schools, parents and children. Equally, I am working with my colleagues on the creation of an innovation school in a new university in Shanghai. The school does not have its own students, nor does it confer degrees – it teaches students in other schools to unleash their potential as creative thinkers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

My last position was Director of IT Operations at New York University’s new “venture” in China – NYU Shanghai, where I built the IT infrastructure and operations from the ground up in accordance with the standards of a top Western university. During my previous tenure as a research scientist, I worked on innovative approaches to simulating DNA and polymerase structures in carcinogenesis. I hold a PhD in Computational Biology from NYU and an MBA from Stern.