Channy Chhi Laux

Born 1962 Battambang (CAMBODIA)

Her memoir, Short Hair Detention, received a 2018 Nebraska Book Award from the Nebraska Center for the Book. Channy arrived in Lincoln in 1979 as a refugee survivor of the 1975-1979 Cambodian genocide. Having missed four years of schooling, she entered Lincoln High School as a 10th grader and after graduation earned a BS in mathematics and computer science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MS in applied mathematics from Santa Clara University in California. She pursued a thirty year career as an aerospace and biotech engineer in Silicon Valley. She wrote her memoir of surviving the genocide after retiring from the engineering profession in 2010. She is also a chef, and proprietor of Angkor Cambodian Food in California. She has spoken about her experiences at the University of Nebraska and the Nebraska Book Festival.

Places Lived

Cambodia
Lincoln, NE
California

Author Of

Biography
Nonfiction

Keywords

Refugee Autobiography; Cambodian Genocide

Education

Lincoln High School
BS in mathematics and computer science, University of Nebraska--Lincoln
MS in applied mathematics from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA

Occupation

Engineer
Chef

Honors

Distinguished Alumni Award, Lincoln High School
2018 Nebraska Book Award

Bibliography

Short Hair Detention. Memoir of a Thirteen-Year-Old Girl Surviving the Cambodian Genocide. 2017.

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