Chien Shu, a bioengineer and Academician at Academia Sinica, recently received the Roger Revelle Medal from the University of California at San Diego for being an “exceptional researcher, instructor, mentor and citizen of the university and his professional community.”
Chien, professor and director of the UCSD Institute of Engineering in Medicine, has done pioneering work in cardiovascular physiology and bioengineering, tremendously contributing to the research of microcirculation and blood rheology, according to the AS.
He is also recognized for having built the Jacobs School of Engineering’s Department of Bioengineering at the UCSD into a world-class institution. The school has been ranked No. 1 for biomedical engineering by the U.S. National Research Council, the Taipei City-based research body added.
According to Frank Liu, director of the AS Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Chien was among those who established the institute and one of the very first to initiate a series of programs which saw 12 U.S. cell biologists come to Taiwan from 1987 to 1989, laying the foundation for related research at the AS.
“As a former faculty member of the University of California, I think he surely deserves the award,” said Liu. “We’re all proud of him, because he is also one of our peers at Academia Sinica.”
Numerous awards have been granted to the Academician since his election to the position in 1976. He is one of but a handful who have been a member of the three most prestigious U. S. research organizations: the Institute of Medicine, since 1994; the National Academy of Engineering, since 1997; and the National Academy of Sciences, since 2005.
He won the Republic of China Presidential Science Prize for life science in 2009. In September 2011, Chien received the National Medal of Science from U.S. President Barack Obama, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists.
Having graduated from National Taiwan University with an M.D. degree in 1953, Chien went on to obtain a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1957.
Many members of Chien’s family have held prominent ROC government positions. His grandfather Chien Hong-ye once served as a justice on the ROC’s Supreme Court in Shanghai. His father Chien Shih-Liang served as president of Academia Sinica in 1970, his elder brother Robert Chien was Minister of Finance (1985-1988) and his younger brother Frederick Chien was Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990-1996). (SSC-MJH)
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