S. B. Woo

Woo became an Independent in 2000 and announced his intention not to accept a federal appointment in order to advance public perception of his neutrality without any personal partisan benefit.

A life-sized picture of him is displayed in Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Another picture of him is in an interactive display in the lobby of Asia Society in New York City. In 2000, A Magazine ranked him the 6th of the 25 Most Influential Asian Americans.

Woo narrowly won the Democratic primary election for U.S. Senator in 1988, defeating Samuel S. Beard, an heir to a railroad fortune and resident of Greenville, Delaware. In fact, the election appeared to be lost until an error in the tabulation was discovered, which changed the result. Nevertheless, Woo lost the general election to the incumbent Republican Senator William Roth. Likewise, in 1992, he was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House from Delaware's sole congressional district, but lost the election to retiring Gov. Mike Castle by twelve points.

In his first attempt at public office, Woo was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1984. He won the Democratic primary election by defeating two veteran state senators, Nancy W. Cook of Dover and David McBride of New Castle. In the general election he narrowly defeated Republican Battle R. Robinson of Georgetown, who was the first woman to practice law in Sussex County and the assistant legal counsel to retiring Governor Pete du Pont. Woo thus became one of the highest ranking Chinese American public office holders in the nation and served one term from January 15, 1985 until January 20, 1989.

He married in 1963 and has two children. In 1966, he joined the faculty of the University of Delaware, where he became a professor of physics and astronomy. He retired in 2002 after 36 years.

Shien Biau Woo (born August 13, 1937) is a Chinese American professor and politician from Newark, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party and served as the 21st lieutenant governor of Delaware.

Woo's ancestral hometown is Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. He was born in 1937 in Shanghai. His parents fled the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949 to Hong Kong with him, he studied at Hong Kong Pui Ching Middle School, and then he came to the United States at the age of 18. He received undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Physics from Georgetown College in Kentucky and his PhD in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis.