Academia Sinica yesterday hailed the election of three Taiwanese scientists, including its president, James Liao (廖俊智), to The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), but said it would require the academy to correct its documents, which refer to the nation as “Taiwan, China.”
A global science academy based in Trieste, Italy, TWAS has more than 1,200 members. On Tuesday last week, it announced a list of 36 newly elected fellows, which is to take effect next month.
Liao was recognized for using metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and systems biology to construct microorganisms to produce next-generation biofuels and to study the obesity problem in humans, TWAS said.
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica
Also an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Liao on Dec. 3 received the Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical and Chemical Engineering in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Chung Bon-chu (鍾邦柱), a distinguished research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Molecular Biology, was honored for her elucidation of the regulation of steroids and delineation of steroidogenic pathways in zebrafish, TWAS said, adding that her work helped “opened new research directions.”
Lu Chih-yuan (盧志遠), president of Macronix (旺宏電子) and chairman of Ardentec Corp (欣銓科技), is a distinguished chair professor for research at National Taiwan University’s Department of Physics and was elected an academician of Academia Sinica last year.
Lu has made outstanding technical contributions in semiconductor device physics, silicon integrated circuit processes development and integration technologies, and is described as “an innovative high-tech entrepreneur and outstanding industrial leader in [the] semiconductor industry” by TWAS.
Being elected into the academy not only demonstrates the personal achievements of academics, but also reflects their home countries’ efforts in promoting science, Academia Sinica said.
However, the three scientists are listed as being from “Taiwan, China” on the TWAS Web site.
Academia Sinica quoted Liao as saying that it would write to the academy to ask it to correct the name of the country.
The three scientists are to be awarded new memberships at TWAS’ general meeting in November next year, Academia Sinica added.
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