Inez Fung grew up on Hong Kong Island in the South China Sea. As a kid she loved to swim in the beautiful bays surrounding the island and lie on the beach watching the clouds. But life wasn't all play. For kids in Hong Kong, education was a serious matter —how well you did determined what you would be in life. As a teenager, Inez thought about becoming a pianist or a doctor. But math and science drew her interest, too. And she was good at both subjects.

After high school, Inez traveled halfway around the world to go to college in the United States. She attended Utica College in New York, then transferred to MIT—the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—to study math. She loved it! After earning her bachelor's degree, Inez decided to pursue a graduate degree in meteorology, the study of weather. Inez's childhood memories of the hurricanes that blew through Hong Kong had inspired her choice. She wanted to learn how these massive storms form and why they're shaped like huge spirals.