President Chi-Huey Wong and Academician Der-Tsai Lee have been awarded the 2008 Science Professional Medal by the National Science Council (NSC) for their contributions to the promotion of scientific and technological development in Taiwan. In addition, five Academia Sinica research fellows have been presented with the 2008 National Science Council’s Merit NSC Research Fellow Award.

President Wong won the Gold Medal for his outstanding research in chemical biology and his leadership in the effort to build biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in Taiwan. Having long been widely regarded as one of the most creative and innovative scientists in his field, President Wong’s major academic contributions lie in his important work in the development of enzyme-based and programmable synthesis methods to tackle the problems of carbohydrate-mediated biological recognition.

Dr. Der-Tsai Lee was recognized with the Bronze Medal for his outstanding achievements in computational geometry and its applications to very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) layout and computer graphics. His work on efficient algorithms and software tools development has influenced both academic research and industrial technologies. Dr. Lee has also initiated several important international collaborative projects.

The five winners of the 2008 Merit NSC Research Fellow Award of National Science Council are: Dr. Na-Sheng Lin, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director in the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology; Dr. Andrew Tai-Ann Cheng, Distinguished Research Fellow in the Institute of Biomedical Sciences; Dr. Yu-Shan Wu, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director in the Institute of Political Science; Dr. Cheng-Chen Yang, Distinguished Research Fellow in the Institute of Economics; Dr. Shi-Shyr Roan, Research Fellow in the Institute of Mathematics.