Yan Huang (14 Feb 1988 - 8 Mar 2019)

Yan described himself on Facebook in 2016 as "Annoying combination of insanely high intelligence and insanely high stupidity"
Today we are all gathering here to celebrate the life of a young person with a brilliant and thoughtful mind, our beloved son Yan Huang.
Yan is the only child in the family and was born at Railway Hospital in Nanjing, China on the evening of the Valentine day, 1988. China at that time was a poor developing country, although his Dad and Mum at the time were highly educated and Dad was a lecturer in the highly ranked university of China and Mum worked as a teacher in a poly-Technology school, but the family was struggling to survive and the family of 5 (including Yan’s maternal grandparents) lived in a dormitory about 150 square feet. When Yan was two months old I came to UK as an academic visitor and when he was 2 and half years old his mother came to join me in Cambridge and Yan remained in China cared by his maternal grandparents. At 4 and half years old, his parents managed to get Yan over to UK and finally family united. (at that time, Chinese Government was still very conservative, and very concerned about people emigrating from China, so spouse or child were must remained in China if any one went aboard for any scientific study or visit. I managed to get Yan and my wife to UK by bypassing official procedure).
Yan arrived in UK on 12 June 1992 but the family of three survived on my studentship (less than £4000 per annum) and some income from his mum’s part time job. We were all happy as the family finally united and life was much better than what was in China at that time. Yan entered Mayfield Primary School in September of the same year with no knowledge of English language, this must was very traumatic. The first English word he learnt and spoke was “Ms Ingo”, as I can remember after he came home from school, he just repeatedly uttered “Ms Ingo, Ms Ingo…”, latterly I realised Ms Ingo was his class teacher. However within 4 months his English reached a level better than most native English speaker in his age.
Yan performed brilliantly in his primary school and enjoy reading a wide range books and was always completely absorbed in anything that he was interested. He achieved level three on all subjects of Key stage 1 test. He achieved Level 5 on Reading and 4 on Writing on his Key stage 2 test. Teacher assessment gave him level 6 for both Mathematics and Science. His Science test achieved level 6 and mathematics test was 1 mark below 6, he was the first pupil to do so in his school history.
Yan also had a natural talent for music and was able to tell subtle difference of piano tune, and we were told by a pianist very few people have this capability. He is not a keen piano player and mostly was taught by his mum who only can play a little, Yan passed Piano Grade 5 test at age 12 with two marks below Merit. He also played a little violin but his interest switched to drum during his teen years, mostly possibly influenced by his fellow pupil Duncan Stuart in Cademiur International School. He also interested in Music Synthesising and had some equipment in his bedroom, and he also intended to study acoustic engineering in Southampton University but his age of 15-years old at that time prevented him to do so.
Yan’s gift was not really fully recognised until when he was not able to fit in the main stream school or the school couldn’t offer appropriate support to fulfil Yan’s potential. We approached National Association for the Gifted Children (NAGC), now called potentialplusuk, a charity helps and advice education of gifted children with ability scale above 95 percentile. From there we were referred to Society of Children with High Ability, a charity helping gifted children with ability scale above 99 percentile. Both organisation offered substantial advice and help to fight with Local Education Authority (LEA) to facilitate Yan’s education. Yan was assessed by Educational Psychologist appointed by LEA at the age of 11 years and 10 months old, Yan was ranked at 99 percentile, Age equivalent to 18 years old based British Ability Scales II (BAS II), that meant that Yan has an IQ at least 151.
The LEA sent Yan to Cademuir International School in Dumfriesshire Scotland in 2000. The school was a specialist boarding school, for very gifted and talented individuals who found conventional educational environments restrictive or challenging.

Yan’s achievement at Cademuir was summarised in his final school report dated 29/6/2004:

“Achieved very good results in his NABs for Advanced Higher Physics from just last minute studying (only about a month of self-study). Similarly for Advanced Higher Maths, though he did attend some classes he mainly went through the course self-studying with the appropriate text books”
“His recent successful teaching experience/peer support for Advanced Higher Physics reflects the extent which he has matured. Yan has surprised us all with his organisation, planning and preparation and indeed his skills in transmitting the subject in such an attainable way. His pupils have benefited from his input and appreciated his teaching style. It is quite amusing to hear how Yan demanded homework and total application.”
“Yan at 15 had already achieved so much academically with an impressive list of creditable qualifications which, if his young age had not prevented it, could have gained him access to almost any university.”
In Cademuir, Yan received George Lewis Memorial Cup For best achievement in science and computing in June 2002. As I can remember one of his experiments on biology was submitted to Duke of Edinburgh Award.

My impression from his school report is that Yan spent little time on his study compared with then what he was doing in school, we may can find some clue from one of his fellow pupil’s recent email to me:

“My memory’s of Yan were his keen interests and hobbies that were orientated around science and technologies. Particularly computing and communications.

Yan would always have his retro Nokia mobile phone connected to his laptop scanning the airways for available cell stations and networks. Being in Scotland this meant signal was somewhat elusive.

I remember a time at the school when one of the local antennas stopped charging users for the calls they made, so many students could use their phones to call out internationally without being billed. It was rumoured that Yan was behind this devious plot, although never confirmed.

Yan had one very good friend at cademuir that will stand out in my mind and that was Michale Schlafli, they were always to be found together at school. Technology and science being a common ground. And when together they complimented each other’s talents. It was only just recently I noticed that they also shared the same birthdays. Possibly another coincidence that made them longterm friends.”
Even so, Yan passed Scottish Standard Grade at age of 13, Scottish Higher at age 14 and Advanced Higher at age of 15, three years ahead of peer in main street school. He entered Edinburgh University at age of 16 and studied for Biology with Management. My guess is that he managed to complete his university courses the same way as he was in Cademuir: hardly attended any lecture and rushed to pass examination by self-study.

Regrettably, since Yan’s university time we did not know much about Yan’s life. After university he first worked on IT section in Edinburgh University and then in Aberdeen University. As I understand that Yan didn’t have any formal training on computer, his IT skill and knowledge must be gained by self-studying as well. Here I only can quote some of remarks about him on his work by his former colleagues:

I remember Yan having a quirky sense of humour, always will to help and to share his knowledge and experience. His thoughts were often deep and well considered but he could also have a joke and some fun.
There are few other words that I can put to you other than to let you know that Yan was very much well liked, trusted and respected(Mark Marooth, IT Security & Information GovernanceDigital and Information Services | University of Aberdeen)
Yan was a popular and well-liked member of staff who was respected by hispeers and showed enormous talent and professionalism. (Brian Henderson, Director of Digital and Information Services,University of Aberdeen)

He was obviously a capable and gifted person. I don't think I have ever met anyone so knowledgable about technology, and having someone so helpful, intelligent and friendly as a colleague was very rare. (Dr Matt Dennis, Lecturer & BSc Software Engineering Course Director, University of Portsmouth).

Similar to many gifted people, Yan had his weakness, lack of social and communication skill were two of them. He doesn’t have a lot of friends but he does have good friends and true friends, and friends for life. To be his friend, you have to understand him, especially the unique way of thinking and his brilliant brain; to tolerate his silliness and naughtiness. Today I am honoured to have many of such friends, even more his friends’s parents sitting here. Here I express my gratitude to many of Yan’s friend’s parents for caring and looking after him when he stayed with your family. Unfortunately his sometime silliness and naughtiness had not been understanded by his main stream school, his peers and most member of our society.

Yan loved animals and was much calm and happier when he was with animal. His first pet was a cat belonging to cottage that we rented. When moved house and we bought him two rabbits. Now Yan is lying in peace with two toy cats we bought for him when we saw him for the last time.

Yan enjoyed travelling. As said by one of his friend “ I was founding him the happiest: when he was travelling and when he was surrounded by cats.” Yan made his first solo continental travel at the age 15, thankful for his friendship with his fellow pupils in Cademiur and invitation of their parents to stay with their family, he travelled to Paris and then to Germany. Once again we are grateful his friends and his friend’s mother travel from France and Germany and attend Yan’s service today.

Yan is a caring child and young man. He was always keen to help other and care other if we as parent thought that he was not able to look after himself. He helped many of his fellow pupil in Cademiur and resulted in the long last friendship with them and their family.

Yan had a very strong personality and very independent from very young. He earned his first barrel of gold when he was in Cademiur (I still keep a copy of his P60 form of the year 2004-2005). I think he worked part time throughout his university time to support his hobbies such as travelling, photographing and others.

Last we would like to share with you some happy memory of Yan.

We lived in a university farm cottage that was part of the estate of Cambridge University; there were many farm animals around. When Yan was about 6, he invited a girl from his class to our house, the girl was very happy to see so many animals in the field around the house, said “I like lamb, I like cow and I like farm”, Yan said “well if you like farm you have to marry me as I am living in the farm”

At his sixthbirthdays, he was jumping on the bed and looked at the dairy of 1993 which his mum had marked his birthday he said “my last year’s birthday was on Sunday, this year is on Monday so the next one should be on Tuesday”. He got this right but he didn’t know not every year has 365 days.

At 7 he put a note on his bed room door, “Entrance Charge 1p”, I said as your dad I should be free of charge and then he changed his strategy. He tricked me to open his door and then a balloon fell on my head.

Donations in memory of Yan can be sent to Scotmid Funerals, Fountainbridge, or made online by clicking one of the links below.
Potential Plus UK
The Mental Health Foundation.