On May 24th, the Astronomical Society of the Republic of China presents the 1st Heaven Quest Award to Director Paul T.P. Ho for his distinguished contribution to astronomical research. Director Ho is an Academician of the Academia Sinica and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He has served as the ASIAA Director for 12 years in Taiwan from 2002 to 2014. In his efforts to drive the growth of astronomy in Taiwan, Director Ho focuses on the development of instrumentation for forefront fields in astronomy. These include the SMA, AMiBA, ALMA, GLT, TAOS, WIRCam, HSC, PFS, ERG, and SPICA. Participation in these projects has enabled Taiwan to engage in the frontier research in astronomy, while building the infrastructures in Taiwan in terms of manpower, technical knowhow, and industrial partnerships. Director Ho has also promoted the participation of Taiwan in the East Asia Core Observatories Association (EACOA), which unites the East Asian Observatories to work on regional collaboration and development, in order to make Asia competitive with the western countries.