Chris Liang Growing up in New York, Assistant Professor of Psychology Chris Liang spent much of his time at a local aquarium. He fed Beluga whales, developed a love for research, came into his own as a speaker and thought about becoming a marine biologist. But Buffalo did not have an ocean and his successful undergraduate years led him down a different career path. At the State University of New York, Buffalo, several of his professors inspired him to teach. “(Dr. Elizabeth Kennedy) really helped shape how I thought about the world, supported what I thought, challenged what I thought and, most importantly, really fostered an environment for me to think and not just absorb information,” he says. Later at the University of Maryland, College Park, just outside of Washington, D.C., which he considers to be his second home, other mentors continued to give him the teaching and research opportunities he craved. “I really came to like teaching, working with students informally and formally and allowing them to experience what I experienced with my professors,” he says. Pictures of him and his wife – in the snow, in Halloween costumes, and on their wedding day—line his office shelves. They met in Washington while in graduate school and were married a few years ago. “We did a lot there. We grew up, I think, and really became adults,” he says. “It was the point in our lives when we were really learning … to appreciate museums and to appreciate our environment.” He and his wife now enjoy hiking and kayaking, “getting out into the environment and doing things outdoors,” whenever they can. Born in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn, the city streets were his playground and were home to games of stickball, Wiffle ball and street football. “Parked cars became end zones and I certainly broke enough windshields to know not to play baseball in the streets, but I played a lot of ball,” he says. Nixing public transportation despite loving subways as much as any other New Yorker, inline skating became his favorite way to get around as a teen, leaving him free to race traffic. “There’s something wonderful about inline skating through traffic; it was liberating and dangerous and also just a quick way to get around,” he says. “There were times when I would race cabs and see if I could get to the end of the block faster than they could.” His parents, immigrants who struggled throughout their lives, always put their children’s happiness first, Liang says. “My parents always wished that I would do anything I wanted to do, so I didn’t get a lot of pressure from them to be anything but happy,” he says. In high school he had the opportunity to volunteer at the local aquarium, a facility that had Beluga whales, sea lions, seals and dolphins. He was a docent one summer and spent 12- to14-hour days there. “I got to research there and feed the animals, to train them, but doing research was what really impressed me most,” he says. “The aquarium was just a great experience, one that I hold very dear. I gained a lot of responsibility by being there and also, in my role as a docent, had the opportunity to find my voice.” He says his early experiences of studying to become a knowledgeable docent for patrons allowed him to develop into the type of teacher he wanted to become, and to involve people in dialogue. “I was always a loud kid but I figured out that I could be a conveyor of knowledge,” he says. “It was really nerve-wracking the first time I spoke in public but it (set the stage for) some of the talks and lectures I do now. “I think I was really lucky to get to meet some of those animals; it was a great experience to rub the tongue of the Beluga whale and my thoughts and ideas about entertainment-based aquariums have always been conflicted,” he adds. “On one hand you want to be able to educate people, on the other hand I always felt awful about seeing animals in captivity.” Interested in social justice, he says he tries to find as much time as possible to dedicate to community service, working with youth at risk and doing his best to positively impact the environment. “We’re in the work we’re in because we want to see all individuals have access to the good life,” he says. RETURN TO FACULTY LISTHome.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0