Min Chueh Chang

Min Chueh Chang (, October 10, 1908 – June 5, 1991), often credited as M.C. Chang, was a Chinese American reproductive biologist. His specific area of study was the fertilisation process in mammalian reproduction. Though his career produced findings that are important and valuable to many areas in the field of fertilisation, including his work on in vitro fertilisation which led to the first "test tube baby", he was best known to the world for his contribution to the development of the combined oral contraceptive pill at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.

Education and private life Chang was born on October 10, 1908, in the village of Dunhòu (敦厚), Lüliang, Shanxi, China. His family was able to provide for him a good education, and in 1933, he obtained a bachelor's degree in animal psychology from Tsinghua University in Beijing. In 1938, Chang won a national competition and was awarded one of the few available fellowships to study abroad. He went to spend a year at the University of Edinburgh studying agricultural science, but found that the university was not to his liking due to a combination of the cold weather and a perceived bias against foreigners there. On an invitation from Arthur Walton, Chang left the University of Edinburgh and went on to research ram spermatozoa at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. With his newfound interest in reproductive biology, Chang immersed himself in research, working together with other scientists such as John Hammond and F.H.A. Marshall, under the tutelage of Arthur Walton. In 1941, he was awarded a PhD in animal breeding by the University of Cambridge on his observations on the effect of testicular cooling and various hormonal treatments on the respiration, metabolism, and survival of sperm in animals.

Chang met his wife, American-born Chinese Isabelle Chin Chang, in the library at Yale University, shortly after he moved to the United States. Pamela O'Malley Chang, an architect, civil engineer, and sustainable design consultant and Francis Hugh Chang, director of health centers in Boston, Massachusetts.

Chang died at a hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 5, 1991, from heart failure. He was buried in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, where he had lived and where the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology was located. Ortho Medal, given by the American Fertility Society (1961) Francis Amory Prize, given by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1975) Wippman Scientific Research Award, given by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (1987) Elected membership to the National Academy of Sciences (1990)