Source: Taipei Times

Biochemist Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) has received a Chemical Pioneer Award for his outstanding contributions in the field of chemistry, Academia Sinica said in a statement yesterday.

The American Institute of Chemistry, a non-profit aimed at advancing chemical science, on March 31 announced that Wong and Alison Butler, a University of California chemistry professor, were this year’s recipients of its annual award.

Wong, who was president of Academia Sinica from 2006 to 2016, is a Scripps family chair professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego and a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Genomics Research Center.

First presented in 1966, the Chemical Pioneer Award recognizes chemists or chemical engineers who have made outstanding contributions that have had a major impact on advances in chemical science and/or the chemical profession, the Institute of Chemistry said.

Wong was the first scientist to develop innovative chemoenzymatic methods, including the automated synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoproteins, which are aimed at developing cancer vaccines, sugar chips, and antiviral and antimicrobial agents, Academia Sinica said.

The latest honor adds to a long list of awards that Wong has received, including the Welch Award in Chemistry from the US-based Welch Foundation last year and the UK-based Royal Society of Chemistry’s Robert Robinson Award.