Short answers, pulled from the story.
Yu-Chi Ho is a Chinese-American mathematician and control theorist, born on the 1st of March, 1934, in Shanghai. He is known for co-authoring Applied Optimal Control, developing the Ho-Kashyap rule in pattern recognition, and making foundational contributions to differential games and discrete event dynamic systems. He spent forty years on the faculty of Harvard University.
Yu-Chi Ho joined Harvard in 1958, received tenure in 1965, and held the titles of Gordon McKay Professor of Systems Engineering, Emeritus, and T. Jefferson Coolidge Chair of Applied Mathematics, Emeritus. He retired from teaching duties in 2001 after forty years of service and became a Research Professor.
Ho was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987 for pioneering and sustained contributions to applied optimization, control, and systems engineering theory and application.
The Ho-Kashyap rule is a result in pattern recognition developed by Yu-Chi Ho and his first Harvard Ph.D. student, Rangasami L. Kashyap, after Ho joined the Harvard faculty.
Ho received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970, the IEEE Control Systems Science and Engineering Award in 1989, the Chiang Technology Achievement Award in 1993, the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award in 1999, the Rufus Oldenburger Medal in 1999, and the Isaacs Award from the International Society of Dynamic Games in 2004.
Ho founded the annual United Asian American Dinner of Massachusetts and chaired the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association from 1995 to 1998. He was President of the New England Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans from 1982 to 1985, and a founding member of the 80-20 Initiative, a national political movement for Asian Americans.