Judy Cheng (
Cheng is the top forensic science officer in the country and a student of well-known forensics expert Henry Lee (
She has been leading her team in collecting, researching and analyzing all the evidence related to the shooting.
Cheng, 45, was sworn in to her current position last summer, after her predecessor, Weng Jing-hui (翁景惠), died of liver cancer on June 16.
Cheng, half Han Chinese and half Aboriginal, was born in Hualien. After taking the Joint College Entrance Exam, she was admitted to three institutes -- the Central Police University's (CPU) Criminal Investigation Department, the National Defense Medical Center's Nursing Department and Tunghai University's Physics Department.
She decided to join the police force because she believed it would be challenging.
She turned to forensic science after she graduated from the police university in 1981.
"I think that is because I have been a curious person since I was a kid," Cheng said. "Many people warned me that it would be a tough career when they heard that I was going to be a forensic scientist. But I never regretted what I have done."
In addition to her bachelor's degree in criminal investigation, Cheng holds a master's degree in forensic science from the police university.
In her job, Cheng has worked with corpses, trash and rotten meat. She said she has always regarded such things as evidence.
Hints
"You will never know what these things may tell you," she said. "And these hints may help my fellow officers to close a criminal case."
In addition to research and analysis, Cheng said her job requires a person who can remain fresh and engage in a constant learning process.
"The more you absorb, the more progress you will make at work," she said.
A forensic scientist in this country usually works more than 12 hours a day.
Unwinding
Cheng said finding an engaging activity after long, pressure-filled days is important.
She said she often listens to her favorite music, chats with friends or calls Lee, her mentor, for questions when she is not working. She said she also enjoys going to hot springs.
Cheng had a chance to become a student of Lee's in 1989, when she passed an exam for a five-year intensive training program by the National Police Administration.
Cheng and Hsieh Sung-shan (
Cheng said that Lee let them stay at his house and treated them to three meals a day. In addition to taking care of their lodging, Lee took them everywhere he went during the day and led them through lab experiments. At night Lee spent his time discussing the results of their experiments as well as criminal cases.
"From Lee, I realized what it is to be a master," she said.
Cheng is known for her willingness to share and her passion to give. She said she got these characteristics from Lee.
Proper attitude
"Experience occupies a good portion of forensic science. To be a good forensic scientist, knowledge and experience are very important," Cheng said.
"Lee showed me the attitude and always helped me whenever I needed it. That is the spirit of the business and I shall pass it on."
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater