By Brooke Fisher
A transformative gift from the Liao family supports the new Interdisciplinary Engineering Building.
The Liao family at the Wing Luke Museum. Photo credit: Wing Luke Museum.
For engineering students, the lobby of the new five-story Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB) will be a hub of educational activity, offering a comfortable spot to study and a central gathering place. And for the Liao family, it will serve as a lasting legacy and testament to the transformational power of education.
Paul at work in a laboratory. Photo courtesy of the Liao family.
The lobby of the new building will be named after the Liao family, who provided a significant gift in support of the IEB, which is scheduled to open in spring 2025. In particular, the gift honors the legacy of late civil and environmental engineering alumnus Paul Liao, who credited much of his success to educational opportunities and the support of his family. After Paul’s passing in 2018, his wife Mei-Yea and daughters Darlene and Dahlia, both UW graduates, stepped forward to honor him as well as the couple’s son, Darwin, who passed in 2013.
In his early years in Taiwan, where he was raised on a farm, Paul walked an hour to attend school. The first in his family to receive a college degree, Paul worked as a civil engineer in Taiwan before attending the UW to earn his doctorate, which he completed in 1972. During his graduate studies, Paul worked at a local consulting company, gaining international recognition for his research on methods of water treatment for fisheries, which led to advancements in global seafood production.
The Liaos in front of UW’s Drumheller Fountain celebrating Paul’s graduation. Photo courtesy of the Liao family.
This work led to a career at KCM, a Seattle-based engineering company that merged with Tetra-Tech in 1995. Paul served as chairman, CEO and CFO of the company, which became one of the largest engineering firms in the country, and was responsible for important projects in the Puget Sound area. His contributions helped to shape aquaculture and fisheries work in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
Prior to the family’s recent philanthropic gift, they established a Regental Fellowship in the UW Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, which supports exchange with the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.
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Originally published November 12, 2024