Chen Wen-chang (陳文章), dean of National Taiwan University’s (NTU) College of Engineering, is to become the university’s new president after yesterday winning in two rounds of voting.
A source familiar with the election process said it was convoluted because the School of Medicine and the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science nominated multiple candidates.
Aside from being a recognized academic, an eligible candidate for the nation’s national chair professorship program and holder of numerous patents, Chen is also known as a capable administrator, with one of his proudest moments being when he raised funds to build multiple dormitories for the engineering college, the source said.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
NTU is a comprehensive university, making it difficult to secure external funding, but Chen has been competent in securing investments not only for the college, but also for other units, NTU Election Committee convener Liang Kung-yi (梁賡義) said.
The election process was “smooth and peaceful,” as the committee had previously interviewed the candidates and was fully briefed on their ideals for running a university, Liang said.
The committee met in the afternoon, debating for an hour the voting method.
It voted on six candidates in the first round, which whittled the candidates down to two, he said.
Chen is to succeed NTU president Kuan Chung-ming (管仲閔) after Kuan’s term comes to an end on Jan. 7 next year, Kung said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS