Academician and Director of the Institute of Mathematics, Dr. Tai-Ping Liu has been awarded the "Cataldo e Angiola Agostinelli" International Prize by Italy's Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Dr. Liu will receive the award at a prize ceremony on June 11, 2009 at the headquarters of the Academy in Rome.

The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei is the most prestigious Italian and oldest European science academy and the Agostinelli Prize is considered one of the highest honors awarded in Italy. The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei was founded in 1603 in Rome and began to gain its reputation in part by publishing the books of one of its early members, Galileo. It coordinates, promotes and spreads scientific knowledge.

The Academy presents the Agostinelli Award bi-annually to an eminent international scholar in the field of pure or applied mathematics or mathematical physics. In the alternating years it presents the award to eminent Italian scholars in the field of cancer research or of high moral and humanitarian value.

Dr. Tai-Ping Liu research interests center around nonlinear partial differential equations, shock wave theory, and kinetic theory. He received his BS from National Taiwan University in 1968 and his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1973. He has been a faculty member at the University of Maryland, New York University, and Stanford University and became a Distinguished Research Fellow at Academia Sinica in 2000. He is an Honorary Professor at various universities and has been a Member of the Academy of the Developing World, TWAS since 2006. He was made an Academician at Academia Sinica in 1992.