Premier-designate Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday announced his second wave of Cabinet member appointees, naming current National Central University (NCU) chancellor Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) as the new National Science Council (NSC) minister.
Liu yesterday also named National Tsinghua University professor of engineering and system science Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) as the new Atomic Energy Council (AEC) minister.
Reacting to his appointment, Lee said: “Education and advanced technology are the two most important fields that will provide Taiwan with momentum to go forward.”
“In research as well as in leading a team, you need to gather your resources, set a goal and formulate a plan to achieve that goal — in both [research and leadership], you can [only succeed by] being the first, and I will build Taiwan’s research foundation upon this spirit,” he said.
Lee, an academic inducted into the Academia Sinica for his achievements in space physics, is a well-rounded leader who had propelled NCU into the ranks of elite higher education institutes, NCU vice-chancellor Ip Wing-huen (葉永烜) said.
“In addition to good leadership, Lee’s experience as the former director of the National Applied Research Laboratories [under the NSC], where he grasped technological developmental trends and was open to opinions from all sides, makes him a very good candidate for the [NSC] position,” Ip said.
Other than scientific developments, at NCU Lee had also been keenly developing the humanities fields, an experience that would help with his development of the nation’s social sciences as NSC minister, Ip said.
Addressing emerging global environmental problems, Lee said that “promoting environmental sustainability is the inescapable responsibility of scientists.”
“In the future, I plan to consolidate resources and place more emphasis on research in the fields of the environment as well as clean energies,” he said.
In related news, AEC minister-designate Tsai was described by his colleagues as an accomplished nuclear expert competently fit to lead the council.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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