Source: Taipei Times

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.

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)