VCU doctor honors mentor with endowed scholarship

In support of biomedical engineering students who aspire to attend medical school, Woon Chow, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.H.A. (B.S.‘03, B.S.‘03, Ph.D.’11, M.D.’11, H.S.’15, M.S.’24), and his wife, Sadia Sayeed, M.D. (H.S.’16), both faculty members in the Department of Pathology, made a generous gift in December 2023 to establish the Joseph and Leona Feher Endowed Scholarship for Distinction in Biomedical Engineering. The scholarship honors Chow’s mentor, Joseph Feher, Ph.D., and will support a VCU College of Engineering junior studying biomedical engineering who plans to attend medical school. 

Chow was introduced to Feher through Carlisle Childress (B.S.’96). When Chow was a teenager, his parents frequently had jobs downtown and Chow often tagged along. While they worked, Chow would meander to the nearby Fountain Bookstore in Shockoe Slip. At the time, Childress was working at the bookstore part-time, and they became fast friends. Having recently joined the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Physiology as an IT support specialist, Childress offered to introduce Chow to his colleagues when he learned of Chow’s medical career plans. Among these professors was Feher, who went on to become an informal mentor to Chow.

“Dr. Feher is probably one of the most brilliant people I know,” Chow says. “But beyond that brilliance, few knew the passion and tremendous efforts he put into teaching and mentoring his students. And he does what he does for his students, not for recognition or praise.”

When Chow decided to study biomedical engineering at the VCU College of Engineering, he had the opportunity to learn from Feher in the classroom as well. Chow spent many days alongside Feher as the professor built and updated course materials for a quantitative physiology class for students in the program. His efforts ultimately culminated in a textbook. This text, with the third edition soon to be published, was the first (and still the only one) geared for engineering students who are being exposed to physiology and medical science for the first time but who also require a more analytical approach to those fields.

"Dr. Feher not only wrote the book on quantitative physiology, he also provided a framework for teaching biomedical engineers physiology in a meaningful way," says Rebecca Heise, Ph.D., the Inez A. Caudill, Jr. Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. "He was revered by students and faculty for his tough-love approach to teaching and pre-med advising. Dr. Feher spent time getting to know his students and helped launch the medical careers of so many VCU biomedical engineers."

The two remained friends after Chow graduated from the College of Engineering. Three years before he retired, Feher became the program advisor for the VCU School of Medicine’s Pre-medical Graduate Health Sciences Certificate program, a graduate-level program for individuals seeking to enhance their qualifications for admission into professional school, including medical and dental school. 

“He would meet with every single student during his time as advisor,” Chow says. “He wrote hundreds of recommendation letters for those students. The enormous impact on these students has never truly been recognized or applauded.”

When Feher retired in 2014, Chow and Sayeed wanted to honor his contributions to the profession and to VCU. They decided a scholarship for VCU students would be the perfect way to recognize Feher.

“We also hope that the scholarship can help students offset at least a little bit of the rising college costs,” Chow says.

When it came time to outline criteria for students who would receive the scholarship, Chow asked Feher to decide. Feher wanted the scholarship to be housed in the College of Engineering because of his affinity for the students as he spent over two decades building, refining and teaching the quantitative physiology course. He also determined the scholarship should be awarded to high-performing students who possess values such as integrity, commitment, determination, respect, curiosity and a desire to change the world for the better.

“If the student is going to be a doctor, they really need those values,” Chow says. “We want the scholarship to go to somebody who wants to serve and will one day pass on their knowledge and experience to others.”

Chow and Sayeed hope this scholarship will continue to help students achieve their dreams and carry on Feher’s legacy of shaping future doctors.

“His impact on all of his students was immense. There are dozens and dozens of people who are practicing doctors today because of Dr. Feher,” Chow says. “I hope this scholarship provides some financial support to students, but also that it connects them to people like me, my wife and Dr. Feher who can be mentors to them. With the introduction of artificial intelligence tools and technologies in health care, we need people in medicine who can think and solve problems like engineers. We all look forward to connecting with this next generation of physicians who will help advance care delivery to better serve our patients.”

To support the VCU College of Engineering, visit support.vcu.edu/give/engineering.