Academia Sinica yesterday hailed the election of three Taiwanese scientists, including its president, James Liao (廖俊智), to The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), but said it would require the academy to correct its documents, which refer to the nation as “Taiwan, China.”
A global science academy based in Trieste, Italy, TWAS has more than 1,200 members. On Tuesday last week, it announced a list of 36 newly elected fellows, which is to take effect next month.
Liao was recognized for using metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and systems biology to construct microorganisms to produce next-generation biofuels and to study the obesity problem in humans, TWAS said.
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica
Also an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Liao on Dec. 3 received the Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical and Chemical Engineering in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Chung Bon-chu (鍾邦柱), a distinguished research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Molecular Biology, was honored for her elucidation of the regulation of steroids and delineation of steroidogenic pathways in zebrafish, TWAS said, adding that her work helped “opened new research directions.”
Lu Chih-yuan (盧志遠), president of Macronix (旺宏電子) and chairman of Ardentec Corp (欣銓科技), is a distinguished chair professor for research at National Taiwan University’s Department of Physics and was elected an academician of Academia Sinica last year.
Lu has made outstanding technical contributions in semiconductor device physics, silicon integrated circuit processes development and integration technologies, and is described as “an innovative high-tech entrepreneur and outstanding industrial leader in [the] semiconductor industry” by TWAS.
Being elected into the academy not only demonstrates the personal achievements of academics, but also reflects their home countries’ efforts in promoting science, Academia Sinica said.
However, the three scientists are listed as being from “Taiwan, China” on the TWAS Web site.
Academia Sinica quoted Liao as saying that it would write to the academy to ask it to correct the name of the country.
The three scientists are to be awarded new memberships at TWAS’ general meeting in November next year, Academia Sinica added.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS