This year’s Franco-Taiwanese Scientific Grand Prize was on Wednesday awarded to two researchers jointly working on uncovering links between groundwater and climate change
The prize was awarded in Paris to Lo Min-hui (羅敏輝) — an associate professor in National Taiwan University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences who specializes in land-atmosphere interactions — and Agnes Ducharne — a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research whose work mainly focuses on the water cycle and its relationship to climate change, terrestrial ecology and human activities.
The award, cofounded by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the French Academy of Sciences, recognized the contributions of their project, called “Biosphere and Land Use Exchanges with Groundwater and Soils in Earth system Models.”
Their research explores the evolution of and links between groundwater, irrigation and climate in the anthropocene, and seeks to foresee changes and social consequences.
The project’s Web site says that understanding these links is important to develop sustainable models for using water resources, and ensure food security, biodiversity, human well-being and socio-economic activity.
The award ceremony was held at the Taipei Representative Office in France, and hosted by Representative to France Francois Wu (吳志中), French Academy of Sciences President Patrick Flandrin and academy member Odile Eisenstein.
Lo, who was unable to attend the event in person to the COVID-19 pandemic, thanked the organizers via a prerecorded video message.
Ducharne said that she and Lo contributed complementary research methods, achieving results that could not have been reached by either of them alone.
The award includes a cash prize of 38,200 euros (US$42,867).
The Franco-Taiwanese Scientific Grand Prize has since 1999 been awarded annually to researchers from France and/or Taiwan, with a focus on collaborative efforts between the two nations.
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