Chemistry Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) assumed the presidency of the International Council for Science on Friday, becoming the first Taiwanese academic to take up a leadership post at the international scientific body.
A former president of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s leading research institution, Lee is to serve a three-year term as president of the council, a non-governmental organization billed as the “UN of science.”
Speaking to 300 delegates at the council’s general assembly in Rome, Lee urged the world to tap the wisdom of ancient civilizations for solutions to rampant development and pollution.
Photo: CNA
Excessive human activity has put the environment in peril, Lee said, reminding his audience that the ultimate goal of science and technology was to create a better world and not just financial gain.
Lee will be pushing several major scientific projects during his three-year term and will be responsible for planning a scientific department for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro next year.
He was elected council president at the last general assembly in Mozambique in 2008.
Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) said in Rome that Lee’s position as council president would be beneficial to Taiwan and that it would also greatly encourage young scientists in the country.
Chou Chang-hung (周昌弘), a researcher at the institution who was also in Rome for the council’s general assembly, said he expected that Lee’s appointment would elevate Taiwan’s presence in the international community.
The mission of the council, founded in 1931, is to facilitate international cooperation in the advancement of science and to improve the well-being of humans.
Its members include 121 national scientific bodies and 30 international scientific unions.
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