Chapel Hill Resident Guest of Michelle Obama Tonight

The State of the Union is being delivered tonight, and up in the First Lady's box to watch President Obama deliver the address will be one of Chapel Hill's own, Ping Fu. Here's her biography as released by the White House Press Office. Congrats, Ping!

Ping Fu (Chapel Hill, NC)

Ping Fu co-founded Geomagic, a company which pioneers technologies that fundamentally change the way products are designed, engineered and manufactured around the world from automobiles to medical devices. Geomagic, under her leadership, has been an active participant in the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Fu has led Geomagic to deliver broad-based economic impact to the US economy with tangible results – the company tripled its customer base and employment while achieving high growth and profitability. As such, the NSF awarded Geomagic the prestigious Tibbetts Award for exemplifying the very best in SBIR.

Fu has more than 25 years of software industry experience in database, internet technology, and visual computing. Before Geomagic, she was the Director of Visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is also, actively involved in promoting entrepreneurship and women in mathematics and sciences.