In this region filled with immigrants and players with foreign roots, Michael is the most recent player to be a resident of the US.  He moved to the US from Taiwan in June 2004 and is working currently as a process engineer at Applied Materials.  Michael got his PhD in Taiwan and learned how to play table-tennis there.  He started at the age of ten just for fun with friends but became serious during his collegiate years.  During graduate school, Michael won 4 consecutive titles in the team event in the national collegiate table-tennis championships.  His favorite player is Korea's Kim Taek Soo who plays similar to Michael with the one-sided inverted penhold style.  Michael's favorite part of table-tennis is that he met his wife through this sport.  He lives with his wife and three daughters.