To me, Winston meant so many special things.
He was the Physics Department Chair who hired me in 2001. My first impression of him when I came for interview was: passionate, cheerful, personable, 气场强大- the "force" was strong with him, and I felt it. He was so passionate about the department, telling me many exciting new developments that were happening. It was hard not to feel resonated; at the same time he was also a tough negotiator, and he had the magic to get across his view, very convincingly. When I tried to argue for a higher start-up package to set up my lab, he said "We have Peter Klavins. He will help you set up the lab. That's priceless." Not your conventional counter-argument. But as experimentalist I fully appreciated the value of an experienced "know-all" type of person as Peter, and the view coming from a distinguished experimentalist, Winston himself. I was sold, and he was absolutely right. I know I'm not the only one he said this to.
Winston was my "伯乐", he saw something in me before others did; he believed in me before I did myself. In fact once I accepted the Davis position, he sent around letters announcing that Davis had recruited Kai Liu. Seriously? Who would care? Only my mom would brag about me like that. Winston was a special mentor. Whenever I had difficulties, I could count on him for advice and support. He was masterful at tackling problems with creative solutions. He was one of my strongest advocates. He introduced me to everyone, and nominated me for all sorts of recognition. Honestly I wasn't sure I was good enough, worried I would let him down. Sure enough, nothing worked for a while. All my proposals to NSF were initially rejected. My anxiety reached a climax when I was up for midterm review after three years at Davis. When I consulted him, then as MPS Dean, Winston said "Kai, let's ask for outside letters, maybe we could tenure you." I was like "OK? You sure?" Since joining Davis I had no single PI NSF grant, no outside recognition yet - the usual things one would consider for tenure. "What if the letters are not good?", I asked. He said "Don’t worry, you should be fine; but in case the letters are not strong, we will just call it a mid-term review". To my amazement, the physics department and the campus indeed decided to tenure me. My tenure letter arrived one week before I got the Sloan Fellowship (Winston initially nominated me in 2002, I got it on second try with Shirley’s nomination), before my career really got started. I could never get over it.
Winston was my role model. He was a tireless community leader, on and off campus. He had visions, how to make our communities better and stronger. And he put his heart and enthusiasm into what he did. He was also a tireless advocate for international collaborations. In particular, he was instrumental in formalizing and supporting university-level collaborations with a number of leading Chinese universities, including Peking Univ. and Nanjing Univ. (NJU). The UCD chemistry department has impressive bilateral exchange with Peking Univ. for over a decade now, spearheaded by Gang-yu Liu, and started under Winston's leadership. Physics has strong interactions with NJU, and Winston was key also. In 2007 he initiated a college level agreement in his capacity as MPS Dean with the NJU National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, which later triggered a 2008 University level Agreement of Cooperation between UCD and NJU. In 2013 Winston and Alex Navrotsky led the UCD delegation to the 2nd joint UCD-NJU workshop on Condensed Matter Physics in Nanjing. That summer Alex was also taking over as the MPS Dean as Winston stepped down. In true Winston style, he prepared a "MPS baton" and passed on to Alex during the workshop in Nanjing, to celebrate that special transition.
The face of all these special things Winston meant to me, was a fatherly figure. In fact he told me the first time we met that I was similar age as his son (although he didn't say how tall Hao was). Winston was also same age as my father.
All these years, I am so blessed to have been under his wings. I know he makes everyone feel special and I'm not alone. When I recently hear the song "You raise me up" again, I think of him. Winston has indeed raised me up to more than I can be. He is dearly missed.