President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said Academia Sinica should remain the driving force behind Taiwan's continuing progress.
In his speech, delivered at the opening of the 24th annual assembly of Academia Sinica members, Chen urged Academia Sinica to continue its work as a reservoir of world-class researchers who will make further contributions to securing sustainable development for humankind.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Under the capable leadership of President Lee Yuan-tseh during the past five years, Academia Sinica has successfully made major breakthroughs ... in many research fields," the president said. "And many of its research achievements are widely recognized in international academic circles, which proves its world-class status." The president added that he believed the nation's top research institute was likely to continue to excel in many fields, especially science and technology, culture, and education.
Chen repeatedly praised Acad-emia Sinica and stressed his strong support for Lee, which some interpreted as designed to head off criticism from opposition politicians that the research level of Academia Sinica was below that of a second-class University in the US.
Lee was a devoted supporter of Chen during the presidential election campaign and came under severe attack from other candidates for allegedly violating the widely-held principle that academics should not publicly voice political opinions.
President Chen promised to help expedite passage of the Academia Sinica Organization Bill, which has faced delays in the Legislative Yuan.
Chen also promised that he would push for the granting of whatever funds Academia Sinica needed for research development and that he would help the institute to secure land near its present location in order to allow it to expand in accordance with its plans.
The 24th assembly of Academia Sinica members opened yesterday at the academy in the Taipei suburb of Nankang, with more than 150 members and ranking officials from the government -- including Premier Tang Fei (
Also addressing the opening, Academia Sinica president and Nobel laureate, Lee Yuan-tseh, expressed his delight at the record-high number of members taking part in this year's assembly.
Lee also explained that he had decided to get involved in the presidential election in order to support the current process of social change, saying that three factors had prompted him to step out of academic circles -- the 921 quake, the change in Taiwan's political scene, and globalization.
"We have to consider how to give something of our expertise back to society during this time of great change," Lee said.
Many of the participants have come from abroad for the four-day assembly. These include David Ho (
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS