Academia Sinica would be pleased to appoint US biochemist Roger Tsien (錢永健), a winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry, as an honorary academician and invite him to visit Taiwan, the head of the nation’s top research institution said yesterday.
Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) made the remarks in response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Cheng-ching’s (廖正井) suggestion at a Legislative Yuan Education and Culture Committee hearing.
Tsien, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie last week for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, which can be used as a tool to monitor the movement of cells and their affiliated proteins.
Tsien, who was born and raised in the US and was born to parents from China, was previously rejected as an academician by Academia Sinica academicians. Wong said the “honorary academician” title was more suitable.
“Given that Tsien grew up in the United States, does not speak Mandarin and was not educated in Taiwan, nominating him to become an ‘honorary academician’ would be more feasible,” the Academia Sinica president said.
Wong, also a biochemist, added that he was well acquainted with Tsien and had known for sure that Tsien would some day become a Nobel laureate.
“I will meet Tsien at international workshops or symposiums this year and I’d like to extend an invitation to him then to visit Taiwan whenever it’s convenient for him,” Wong said.
Signatures of endorsement from 10 academicians are required to enable a nominee to become an honorary academician, Academia Sinica regulations said.
The Convocation of Academia Sinica consists of more than 240 academicians, including six Nobel laureates. Unlike regular academicians, honorary academicians do not necessarily perform research or attend meetings at the Academia Sinica campus. This year, the institution selected eight people as honorary academicians, most of them Nobel laureates.
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