Every year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) awards the superlatives with National Chair Professorships and Academic Awards, for the purpose of recognizing and honoring individuals who have made significant contributions in research and demonstrated a commitment to high quality teaching and research. In order to promote the collaborations between academia and industry, the MOE has now created a new award, National Master Distinguished Contribution to Industry-Academia Cooperation Recipients, along with the above two honors.
The awards were presented on January 9th, including 4 National Chair Professorships, 3 National Master Distinguished Contribution to Industry-Academia Cooperation Recipients, and 12 Academic Awards. Two of the NSRRC users, Dr. Li-Chyong Chen (Center of Atomic Initiative for New Materials, National Taiwan University) and Prof. Wen-Feng Liaw (Department of Chemistry, National Tsing-Hua University) are the recipients of the 62nd Academic Awards in Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Dr. Chen is also a current member of the NSRRC Board of Trustees.
Dr. Li-Chyong Chen was employed as a materials scientist at General Electric (GE), U.S.A. for years, and has worked for the Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, National Taiwan University since 1994. She has made extraordinary achievements in the development and application of emergent materials, particularly in the areas of condensed matter physics, low-dimensional nanomaterials, optoelectronics, energy materials, and semiconductor research.
Prof. Wen-Feng Liaw specializes in biological inorganic chemistry and inorganic chemistry. His research team unveiled the electronic structure of [Fe(NO)2] motif in DNICs by using synchrotron facilities at NSRRC and ESRF. His current studies include the synthesis of biomimetic dinitrosyl iron complexes (DNICs) for electrocatalytic/photocatalytic water splitting generating hydrogen, of particular interest for bioinspired coordination chemistry.