Dr. Bon-chu Chung, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of Molecular Biology, has received the 5th “Outstanding Women in Science Award”. For many years, Dr. Chung has dedicated her research career to the study of steroid function and regulation. She has made important contributions to the understanding of steroid actions and control. In addition, Dr. Chao-Wen Wang, Assistant Research Fellow of the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology won the 5th “Promising Women in Science Award”. Dr. Wang who specializes in cell biology, discovered that the structure of the endoplasmic reticulum has an important influence on the movement of a plant virus.
The “Outstanding Women in Science Award” was established by the National Women’s League of the R.O.C., L’oreal Taiwan and the Wu Chien-Shiung Education Foundation to recognize the contributions made by women scientists of Taiwan to their field of study and to carry forward Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu’s legacy of research in the natural sciences. The “Promising Women in Science Award” was created in order to encourage and recognize promising young women scientists and to establish a tradition of excellence among female scientists in Taiwan.
President Chi-Huey Wong will visit the United States in late March 2012 along with 12 scholars from Academia Sinica. He will attend the "Future of Glycoscience" report committee meeting organized by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences from March 19 to 20; attend the Academia Sinica – UC Berkeley Symposium at University of California, Berkeley on March 22; give a lecture and sign a Collaborative Agreement at the University of California at San Diego on March 23; and receive the Arthur C. Cope Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) during the society's 2012 National Awards Ceremony on March 27. President Wong's visit is expected to boost academic cooperation between Taiwan and the United States.
On March 22, President Wong will attend the Academia Sinica Symposium at UC Berkeley to discuss academic exchange with members of UC Berkeley College of Chemistry. The visit follows the signing of an Agreement of Cooperation between the two institutions in January 2012. Symposium participants will discuss the establishment of relationships and research activities in the fields of physical chemistry, nanomaterials, and chemical biology that will provide opportunities for training, research collaboration and exchange of scholars between the two institutions.
On March 23, President Wong will give a lecture entitled "From Chemical Glycobiology to Translational Innovation" at University of California, San Diego. He will also sign an Agreement of Cooperation between Academia Sinica and the University. This agreement is expected to facilitate the collaboration and exchange of researchers and post-doctoral researchers between Academia Sinica and UCSD in biomedical sciences and provide new opportunities for training.
On March 27, President Wong will receive the 2012 Arthur C. Cope Award during the 2012 National Awards Ceremony of the ACS held in San Diego. In September, 2011, the ACS announced President Wong the winner of the 2012 Arthur C. Cope Award for his outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry. In a recent edition of Chemical & Engineering News, a professional weekly published by the ACS, President Wong received praise for his achievements from several respected members of the international academic research community. Professor George M. Whitesides of Harvard University was quoted as saying that President Wong is "the most important figure in the development of carbohydrate synthesis using enzymatic catalysis and a major contributor to glycobiology". Professor Jeffery W. Kelly of Scripps Research Institute said that President Wong's team "elegantly fuse chemistry and biology into a novel, environmentally friendly approach for large-scale synthesis and for the study of carbohydrate-mediated biological recognition reactions associated with cancer, bacterial and viral infections, and immunological function". The Wong group's "groundbreaking research also laid the framework for much of the current interest in carbohydrate microarrays, posttranslational protein glycosylation, and carbohydrate-based drug discovery and vaccine design," he said. Professor Ryoji Noyori, President of the top Japanese research institution RIKEN was quoted as saying that "Chi-Huey's contribution to carbohydrate synthesis is unmatched." "His seminal accomplishments have totally changed the way carbohydrate research is carried out. Without him, the current level of this significant scientific field could not have been attained." he said.
The complete article can be found at: http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i9/Arthur-C-Cope-Award-Winner.html
