Academia Sinica fellows Kenneth Wu (伍焜玉) and Huang Shu-min (黃樹民) and National Taiwan University professor Lee Lin-shan (李琳山) have been selected as the recipients of this year’s Presidential Science Prize.
The three are to receive the award along with a NT$2 million (US$61,143) cash prize at the end of this year for their contribution in the fields of life science, social science and applied science respectively, according to a statement from the Presidential Office.
Renowned for his research in hematology and prostaglandins, Wu was the first to discover that cyclooxygenase — an enzyme responsible for the formation of prostanoids — is inducible and the inhibition of the cyclooxygenase can provide relief from the symptoms of inflammation and pain.
The discovery has led to a new understanding of anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, and of therapies of serious inflammatory syndromes such as sepsis, autoimmune disease and systemic lupus erythematosus.
The Presidential Office statement said Wu also discovered how aspirin could ease blood clotting by dissolving platelet aggregates, which has seen the wide clinical use of the drug to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Meanwhile, Huang was selected for the prize for his achievement s in anthropology, agriculture study, Aborigines and minority study.
His book on the development of Chinese villages since the Chinese economic reform in 1978, The Spiral Road: Change in a Chinese Village Through the Eyes of a Party Leader, has been recognized as a canonical work in the fields of China studies and contemporary anthropology, which has been translated into Chinese and Korean and has sold more than 30,000 copies, a rare achievement for an academic publication, according to the Presidential Office.
His studies of the diaspora of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces in northern Thailand and how they transitioned from opium trade to orcharding describe the national and cultural identification in the era of globalization, the office said, adding his works on Taiwanese Aborigines have been one of the major reference points in the field of social science.
Lee was one of the few pioneers in developing computer-aided processing of Chinese languages by developing and then putting forward the world’s first computer analysis system of Chinese morphological units, as well as the world’s first computer program to analyze complicated syntactic structures of Chinese languages.
His studies have advanced the development of natural language processing and computational linguistics, giving rise to software such as voice search, while improving the program’s ability to process and associate speech signals to maximize correct search results, the presidential office said.
RESOLUTIONS DEBATE: Taiwan’s allies said that UN and WHA resolutions cited by China and other nations ‘do not determine Taiwan’s participation in WHO activities’ A proposal to invite Taiwan to this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) was rejected on Monday, resulting in Taipei’s absence from the annual meeting for a ninth consecutive year, although partners spoke up for Taiwan’s participation at the first day of the meeting. The first agenda item after the opening was a “two-on-two debate” on a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate at the WHA as an observer. Similar to previous years, two countries made statements in favor of the proposal, while two others expressed their opposition. Philippine Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa, president of the 78th WHA, accepted the WHA General Committee’s
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr arrived in Taiwan last night to kick off his first visit to the country since beginning his second term earlier this year. After arriving at Taoyuan International Airport at around 6:30 pm, Whipps and his delegation were welcomed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). Speaking to gathered media, the Palauan leader said he was excited and honored to be back in Taiwan on his first state visit to Taiwan since he was sworn in this January. Among those traveling with Whipps is Minister of State Gustav N. Aitaro, Public Infrastructure
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Friday laid out the Cabinet’s updated policy agenda and recapped the government’s achievements ahead of the one-year anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration. Cho said the government had made progress across a range of areas, including rebuilding Hualien, cracking down on fraud, improving pedestrian safety and promoting economic growth. “I hope the public will not have the impression that the Cabinet only asked the legislature to reconsider a bunch of legal amendments,” Cho said, calling the moves “necessary” to protect constitutional governance and the public’s interest. The Cabinet would work toward achieving its “1+7” plan, he said. The
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) hosted a dinner in Taipei last night with key Taiwanese suppliers to celebrate the successful mass production of the company’s new Blackwell AI systems. Speaking to the media earlier yesterday, Huang thanked Nvidia’s Taiwanese partners for their contributions to the company’s ecosystem, while also sharing his plans to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀). In response to rumors that Nvidia will launch a downgraded Hopper H20 chip for China in July, Huang dismissed the reports, saying, “That is not true.” He clarified that there
RSS