When Jagannath Giri left India to seek a better future in the United States, he thought his wife and children would join him in short order. Just leaving his homeland was a big step. He had lived there all of his thirty-eight years, but he desperately wanted to further his education—and the best place to do that was in the United States.

Even though he arrived in the United States with just $8 in his pocket, he earned a doctoral degree in engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He became the first man in the world to prove that composite material is lighter and stronger than the conventional aluminum used to make airplanes, and his temporary separation from his family became more permanent when he accepted a job at his alma mater.

Giri fought valiantly to get his family visas to join him in the United States, but the paperwork was tedious, and his native country was fighting a “brain drain.” After nine long years, however, the family was finally reunited.

In his autobiography, Giri looks back at how he fought to earn an education, keep his family together, and live a moral life.