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| In Memoriam: Academician Ching-Chung Wang |
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Academia Sinica Academician Ching-Chung Wang, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) died in California in August at the age of 81.
Academician Wang is internationally renowned in the field of parasitology and pharmaceutical chemistry. As a result of his childhood experiences, he was particularly concerned about illness among people in the poor countries of the world which led him into the research and development of anti-parasitic drugs. His most well-known achievement was discovery of the mechanism of action of the drug ivermectin, a treatment against parasites, which is particularly effective for river blindness and elephantiasis. With the help of mass distribution by the World Health Organization, the drug solved the serious health problem caused by river blindness, which previously caused blindness in a great number of strong and young people in villages in West Africa. The drug successfully eliminated the disease.
Academician Wang contributed much to the development of the research environment in Taiwan. He devoted himself to the establishment of the Institute of Molecular Biology at Academia Sinica, and was Director of the institute from 1991 to 1994 during which time the institute was upgraded from a preparatory institute to a fully-fledged institute. Meanwhile, he made an effort to cultivate the new generation in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals through teaching and giving lectures. Dr. Wang was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica in 1992.Academician Wang was born into a literary family. His father, Professor Shou-Kang Wang was a famous and respected linguist in Taiwan. Academician Wang received his B.S. from National Taiwan University in Chemistry in 1958, and his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966. After that, he went to Columbia University and Princeton University to continue his research in biochemistry, mainly focusing on enzymology and protein chemistry. From 1981, he became the professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF. He later became the Vice Chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF.
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