The Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology announced earlier that Academician Fu-Tong Liu, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica, has been awarded the 28th Khwarizmi International Award (KIA) to honor his contributions to the advancement of science. Dr. Liu plans to accept the honor during an award ceremony held in Tehran on March 3, 2015.

　　The KIA is awarded annually by the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), which is affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Islamic Republic of Iran. It is awarded to both Iranian nationals and foreigners for outstanding achievements in research, innovation and invention in fields related to science and technology.

　　Dr. Liu specializes in allergy, immunology, glycobiology, and dermatology. The main objective of his research is the investigation of the functions of a family of animal lectins, galectins. He focuses on galectin-3, -7, -9, and -12 and the study of their roles in inflammation, immunity, cancer, and obesity. He has published over 300 original scientific papers and review articles and his papers have been cited over fifteen thousand times. His research team plans to develop potent galectin-3 inhibitors for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancers, and galectin-12 inhibitors to target adipose tissues for the purpose of reducing adiposity.

　　Academician Liu received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, and an M.D. from the School of Medicine, University of Miami. He was a member and the head of the Allergy Research Section, Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, the Scripps Research Institute, and also a member and head of the Division of Allergy, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. Prior to taking up his current position, Dr. Liu was a Professor and Chair, Distinguished Professor, in the Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, University of California in Davis, where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He returned to Taiwan and assumed his current position in 2010. 
　　 In addition to his research, Academician Liu has been serving long-term on journal editorial boards and as grant reviewers. He is also an Elected Member of the Association of American Physicians (2004), the American Dermatologic Association (2011), an Honorary Member of the Taiwanese Dermatological Association (2011), and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2013). Dr. Liu was elected as an Academician of Academia Sinica in 2012.

　　The annual Khwarizmi International Award was launched in 1987. It has been conferred to non-Iranian nationals since 1992. The award is supported by 15 international organizations, including the Indian-Ocean Rim Association, the World Academy of Sciences, the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

　　The award is named after Abu Jafar Mohammad Ibn Mousa Khwarizmi, an 8th Century Persian mathematician and astronomer, who is considered the father of algebra as a result of his mathematical treatise published around 820 C.E. The word ‘algebra’ itself is said to be derived from the Arabic ‘al-jabr’, one of the two operations used to solve quadratic equations that were first described in his book.

　　Related website:http://en.khwarizmi.ir/