The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) announced the election of three Academia Sinica Academicians among its 2014 list of new members. In addition, three more Taiwan scholars, one from Academia Sinica, received a TWAS Prize, and one professor was elected a TWAS Young Affiliate. The announcement of the conferral of the accolades was made at the 24th TWAS General Meeting held from October 25 to 29 in Muscat, Oman.

The three new TWAS members are, in order of announcement, Academician Ming-Daw Tsai, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of Biological Chemistry; Academician Ker-Chau Li, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of Statistical Science; Academician Chung-Ming Kuan, University Chair Professor of National Taiwan University.

The three Taiwan TWAS prize winners are, in order of announcement, Dr. Sun-Lin Chung, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica and Distinguished Chair Professor of Department of Geology, National Taiwan University (Earth Science Section); Dr. Chih-Yuan Lu, President of Macronix International (Engineering Sciences Section); Dr. Tse Wen Chang, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica (Medical Sciences Section). In addition, Dr. Denise Hsien Wu, Professor and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University, was elected a 2014 TWAS Young Affiliate, an honor awarded annually to exceptional scientists below the age of 40.

Academician Ming-Daw Tsai was elected to the area of Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology. Dr. Tsai is President of Taiwan Biophysical Society. His research interests include mechanistic enzymology of phosphoryl transfer enzymes particularly DNA polymerases and kinases, and the structure-function relationship of proteins in DNA damage response and cancer signaling, particularly ankyrin repeat proteins and FHA domain containing proteins. Dr. Tsai has published over 260 articles in chemical and biological journals.

Academician Ker-Chau Li was elected to the area of Mathematical Sciences. Academician Li has published several seminal papers in statistics. His methods, Sliced Inverse Regression (SIR) and Principle Hessian Directions (PHD), opened up an important area of dimension reduction in high dimensional data analysis. He also invented a method of liquid association for bioinformatics applications.

Academician Chung-Ming Kuan was elected to the area of Social and Economic Sciences. Academician Kuan has long been devoted to the research of econometric theory, empirical studies in economics and finance, and economic forecasting methods. Recently, Academician Kuan has focused more on empirical issues. He has built several macroeconomic forecasting models and important economic indicators, such as the first financial condition index in Taiwan. These research results help the government and business sector to better understand or predict economic fluctuation.

Dr. Sun-Lin Chung was awarded a TWAS prize in the field of Earth Sciences. Dr. Chung has continuously been a lead member of Comprehensive Research on East Asian Tectonic Evolution (CREATE) to investigate some important petrogenetic and tectonic problems in Asia. He has published a number of significant papers with emphasis on the magma genesis, mountain building processes and environmental impacts.

Dr. Tse Wen Chang received a TWAS Prize in the field of Medical Sciences for his invention and development of anti-IgE therapy (Xolair) used worldwide for treating severe persistent asthma untreatable with other medicine.

Dr. Chih-Yuan Lu was awarded a TWAS prize in the field of Engineering Sciences for his seminal scientific innovations and outstanding technical contributions in semiconductor device physics and semiconductor integrated circuits technology.

TWAS currently has 1,148 members from 90 countries. The main mission of the academy is to promote scientific excellence and capacity in the South for science-based sustainable development.

Related website:
2014 TWAS Members: http://twas.org/article/forty-six-new-twas-fellows
2014 TWAS Prizes:http://twas.org/article/twas-announces-2014-prize-winners