Professor Chien-Jen Chen, distinguished research fellow at the Genomics Center will be awarded the insignia of the "Officer of the Order of the Academic Palms" by the French Ministry of Education at a ceremony at the French Institute in Taipei on October 1.

The award will be given to Prof. Chen "in recognition of his excellent research acomplishments in the field of genomics and molecular epidemiology while at the National Taiwan University and the Academia Sinica, and his decisive contribution, especially when he headed the National Science Council of Taiwan, to strengthen scientific and technological relations between France and Taiwan."

Prof. Chen served as Minister of the National Science Council of Taiwan between 2006 and 2008. As the minister, Prof. Chen visited France many times to promote scientific cooperation such as the "Orchid Program" for funding joint research projects, the "France-Taiwan Frontiers of Science" symposia promoting the best among France's and Taiwan's young scientists and a co-operative program between the National Science Council of Taiwan and the French National Agency for Research (ANR) established in January 2007 and extended in 2008.