NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award, Hao Ming Chen
NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award Established to Recognize Distinguished Research Teams
2021/11/24
The award ceremony for the 1st NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award was held on November 24, 2021. The research team led by Prof. Hao Ming Chen from National Taiwan University has earned unanimous recognition from the panel of experts and was awarded a trophy and a prize of TWD 300,000. At the ceremony, Dr. Chun-Jung Chen, the NSRRC Deputy Director, endorsed the team’s contribution and breakthroughs for the scientific innovations resulting from using NSRRC light sources.
The former NSRRC Director, Academician Chien-Ten Chen, received the Presidential Science Prize in 2017. He donated the prize, including the trophy and the award money, to the NSRRC, for the purpose of encouraging and rewarding international and domestic research teams to spur significant scientific innovations by using NSRRC synchrotron facilities.
Academician Chen is a renowned physicist who has dedicated himself to exploring science and building avant-garde instruments. He continues to excel in inventing high-resolution spectrometers, as well as developing soft X-ray experimental techniques and applications. Thanks to the full support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Academician Chen was able to lead the whole NSRRC team to accomplish the construction of the Taiwan Photon Source, the most cutting-edge and the largest experimental facilities ever built in Taiwan. The team’s efforts have not only enhanced Taiwan’s international academic status and the competitiveness of scientific research, but will also facilitate science and technology that makes a positive impact on improving human life and well-being.
NSRRC, entrusted with the mission of succeeding Academician Chen’s pursuit for the ultimate of science, installed the solar panels at the current site, and also established the NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award in 2021. To supplement the wonderful donation from Academician Chen, the NSRRC will continue to fund the prize with the revenue from the solar panels. This award presented by Academician Chen will motivate and inspire more research teams to uncover the truth in the universe and solve the global challenges using synchrotron radiation.
This year’s recipient, Prof. Hao Ming Chen’s team was recognized for their research on the development of in-situ techniques for chemical reactions, which was granted long-term support by the Ministry of Science and Technology. In particular, they reported that an iron catalyst with activity equaling or exceeding that of the precious metals by measurements of synchrotron techniques. The stabilization of dispersed single iron ions in the +3 oxidation state was shown to be key. Their findings on this novel catalyst were unprecedented and could significantly reduce the cost of catalysts. The research results were published in the world’s leading journal, Science, in 2019.
This year’s award was appraised by 7 experts, over two rounds and led by Deputy Director Chen. He acknowledged that the award aims to advance synchrotron radiation science in Taiwan, as well as to recognize the high-impact publications resulting from using NSRRC experimental facilities. The NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award was given under Applied Science this year, and will be followed by Life Sciences and Natural Sciences. The prominent research results of Prof. Hao Ming Chen’s team remain high-profile and widely cited by international academic communities. Most importantly, the research is in full compliance with the utmost goal of the award. For these reasons, their research had won unanimous recognition from the panel.
In the past 20 years, the Taiwan Light Source of the NSRRC has harvested numerous outstanding scientific accomplishments. The Taiwan Photon Source, inaugurated in 2016, is currently one of the brightest light sources in the world; a number of experimental facilities on green energy and biomedicine have been constructed one by one. In the future, NSRRC will continue to assist more scientific elites in finding breakthroughs in the areas of precise health, epidemic prevention, environmental sustainability, etc.
