A new year is a time for new beginnings, and the past few months have found NTU celebrating both the old and the new. In November, as the University celebrated its 83rd anniversary, President Si-chen Lee called on the NTU family to broaden its outlook and aim for the top, and expressed his desire that NTU make the leap from being a follower to becoming a leader. He also presented this year’s Outstanding Alumni Awards to six prominent alumni, and presented an honorary doctorate degree to Prof. Pang-yuan Chi, whose compilation, research and promotion of Taiwan’s literature propelled the nation’s literature onto the world stage.
The Outstanding Alumni Awards were awarded to the following individuals: Nan-chun Yang of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Bang-xin Ding of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Chen-ming Hu of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Jen-shyong Ho of the Department of Economics, Stephen Lee of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Chau-chun Lu of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
The University is also extremely pleased to announce alumnus Jerry P. Yu’s donation of NT million in research funding to the university’s Center for Public Policy and Law. Mr. Yu, an attorney, strongly believes that public policy must be implemented through the legislative system, and his generous donation is certain to have a significant positive impact on campus and on the world outside the campus gates. The University is grateful for this expression of support from this prominent alumnus. A special report in this issue provides additional information about Mr. Yu’s donation.
During the last few months, NTU professors, institutes, and students have received a number of awards and other honors. The Mathematical Science Institute won the Taiwan-France Science and Technology Award, NTU professors claimed National Chair Professor Awards and Academic Awards, and students won the International Electronic Design Automation Contest. In addition, the US Liver Disease Association presented an award to Dr. Ding-shinn Chen, the National Science Council awarded the 2011 Ta-you Wu Memorial Award to ten NTU professors, and a professor of environmental engineering won the Teco Award for Green Technology Contributions.
NTU scholars have also made a number of recent research accomplishments. Biomedical researchers published an important cancer research discovery in Science, a multidisciplinary NTU team detected viral hemorrhagic septicemia through nanotechnology spectroscopy, a research team made red blood cell production findings that could help people with blood problems, the NTU College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciencehad four papers accepted by the 2012 International Solid-State Circuits Conference, and research teams led by former Bell Labs scientists are seeking the holy grail of compound semiconductors.
As NTU enters a new year, the university community looks back with gratitude on the accomplishments of the past year. It also hopes for continued successes in the coming year. We wish NTU alumni and all members of the campus community the best in the year ahead.
