Academia Sinica has selected 19 new academicians, the institution announced yesterday at its 34th Academician Convocation, which was delayed two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Incoming academician Chen Li-chyong (林麗瓊), one of four women selected, told reporters that her decision to return to Taiwan in 1994 had been greatly influenced by then-Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲).
Chen thanked her husband, Chen Kuei-hsien (陳貴賢), who is also an academician at the institution, for encouraging her to return to the country.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Chen Li-chyong said her return coincided with the beginning of a boom in the nation’s tech sector.
The success of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is the result of joint efforts made at the time, she added.
Encouraging young people to devote themselves to scientific research, Chen Li-chyong said: “While young people have many options, science and technology is a significant underpinning that [society] cannot do without.”
“Taiwan’s [academic] environment is no worse than the US,” she said.
Female scientists, especially in physics, are quite rare, she said, adding that she hoped more women would understand and appreciate that the discipline is “fun.”
“After all, the crash of thunder, or cooking a meal, everything is about physics,” she said.
Chen Li-chyong said she is currently researching the use of semiconductors for synthesizing hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide.
The technology still has a low conversion rate of about 1 percent, but if that rate reaches 10 percent, it might enter commercial use and contribute to phasing out fossil fuels in the chemical and other sectors, she said.
Newly elected Academicians and Honorary Academicians :
Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences (5)
1. Jane-Ling Wang (Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis)
2. Mu-Tao Wang (Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University)
3. Li-Chyong Chen (Distinguished Research Fellow (CCMS, NTU) & Director (AI-Mat, NTU) & Professor (Phys. NTU)
4. Liu Chen (Emeritus Professor at Above Scale and Research Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine.)
5. Jen-Chieh Peng (Professor of Physics, University of Illinois)
Division of Engineering Sciences(5)
1. Kai-Nan An (John and Posy Krehbiel Professor Emeritus, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science)
2. Shin-Tson Wu (Trustee Chair Professor, University of Central Florida)
3. Chung-Chieh (Jay) Kuo (University of Southern California, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and William H. Hogue Professorship)
4. Tze-chiang Chen (IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM Fellow, Vice President of Strategy, Science and Technology, IBM Research)
5. Yu-Pen Su (Consultant, National Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST)
Division of Life Sciences (6)
1. Huey-Kang Sytwu (Vice President, National Health Research Institutes/Distinguished Investigator, National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, NHRI)
2. Joseph Ching-Ming Wu (Director, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute Simon H. Stertzer Professor of Medicine & Radiology)
3. Jaung-Geng Lin (Chair Professor at the China Medical University, Taiwan).
4. Hui-Kuan Lin (Anderson Professor for Cancer Research, Director of Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence, Director of Signaling and Biotechnology Program at Wake Forest School of Medicine)
5. Ming-Che Shih (Distinguished Research Fellow, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica)
6. Tang K. Tang (Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica)
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences (3)
1. Yiting Li (Distinguished Professor, National Taiwan University)
2. LEE, Fong-mao (Adjunct Research Follow at Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica/Emeritus Chair Professor, Graduate Institute of Religious Studies, National Chengchi University)
3. Wen-chin Ouyang ( Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature, SOAS, University of London)
Elected Honorary Academicians:
1. Edward Carroll Stone (David Morrisroe Professor of Physics; Vice Provost for Special Projects California Institute of Technology)
2. Tasuku Honjo (Professor, Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study)
3. Arthur Kleinman (Esther and Sidney Rabb professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Harvard University)
Source: Academia Sinica
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS