Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) yesterday presented German plant molecular biologist Wolf Frommer with the 11th Tsungming Tu Award, the nation’s highest academic honor for foreign researchers, at a ceremony at Academia Sinica in Taipei.
The award — named after Tu Tsung-ming (杜聰明) — who in 1922 became the first Taiwanese to earn a doctorate and later founded Kaohsiung Medical University — was established in 2006.
Frommer, who was recommended by Academia Sinica’s Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, is the sole winner this year.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Winners of the award receive US$75,000, the ministry said, noting that 16 German academics have received the award since 2007.
Frommer previously served as an adviser to Academia Sinica’s Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, and it expects to continue to collaborate with him, Academia Sinica Vice President Liu Fu-tong (劉扶東) said.
The 60-year-old Frommer, a member of Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Science, and a professor at Stanford University since 2003, is best known for his discovery of the so-called SWEET proteins that are related to sugar transportation in plant cells and his studies on fluorescent biosensors.
He returned to Germany in April last year to take up an Alexander von Humbolt professorship at Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf, where he heads the Institute of Molecular Physiology.
In his speech at the ceremony, Frommer discussed water and food shortages around the world.
While such shortages are aggravated by climate change, it is “weird” that some people, especially in the US, say there is no such thing as climate change, he said, flashing a photograph of US President Donald Trump during his slide presentation.
To remedy food shortages and boost agricultural production, governments should allocate more funding to fundamental research on plant biology and promote “rational” engineering, he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS