Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences, Dr. Bor-ming Jahn has been awarded The Order of the Academic Palms (L’Ordre des Palmes académiques), an order of knighthood, by the Minister of National Education of France.
Dr. Jahn received the honor for his long-term collaboration with French earth scientists that led to the creation of the first Associated International Laboratory between France and Taiwan.
The Order of the Academic Palms is a French order of chivalry awarded to academics and educators. It was originally created by Napoleon to honor eminent members of the University of Paris. In 1866, the scope of the award was widened to include major contributions to French national education made by anybody, including foreigners. After a hiatus, the award was re-established in 1955 by French President René Coty.
Dr. Jahn is an isotope geochemist. His recent research interests include Phanerozoic crustal growth in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and the northern part of the Arabian-Nubian Shield, geochemical and petrological study of the UHP metamorphic terranes from China, with its implications for continental subduction, exhumation and recycling, geochemistry of loess deposits and implications for paleoclimatic changes, and global geochemical budget of the upper continental crust.
Dr. Jahn has held his position as Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences at Academia Sinica since 2004, prior to which he was a professor at the Universite de Rennes 1, in France for 27 years. He currently holds a joint appointment as a professor at National Taiwan University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (Elsevier) and is associate editor or editorial board member of several other international earth science journals. Over the years he has received numerous awards for his work including the Chair of the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship in Taiwan (2003-2008) and the Research Chair of the Taiwan National Science Council (2003-2006). He is also an elected fellow of four academic societies: the Mineralogical Society of America, the Geological Societies of America, the Geochemical Society and the European Association for Geochemistry. Besides, he holds two honorary professorship and four “guest professorships” in six distinguished institutions in mainland China.
