German medical scientist Juergen Hennig has won the 2010 Tsungming Tu Award, the highest academic honor bestowed on foreign scientists by the Taiwan government, the Cabinet-level National Science Council announced Jan. 25.
NSC Minister Lee Luo-chuang presented the award to Hennig, medical physics professor in the Department of Radiology at University Hospital Freiburg and winner of the 2003 Max Planck Research Award, in a ceremony at Kaohsiung’s National Sun Yat-sen University Jan. 25. Hennig received a grant of US$75,000 with the award.
“The award honors scientists’ achievements and helps promote bilateral scientific exchange and collaboration,” Lee said.
A leading researcher in magnetic resonance imaging, Hennig has tutored three Taiwanese doctoral students at his German laboratory, the NSC said.
According to the NSC, the council signed an agreement with Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2006 to present reciprocal awards for scientific research.
Since 2007, Taiwan has presented the Tsungming Tu Award, named after the first Taiwanese to become a medical doctor, in 1922, to four German scientists, who have also engaged in collaborative research with Taiwanese scholars, the minister said.
In turn, Germany has given the Humboldt Research Award, after the 19th-century Prussian scientist and philosopher, to three Taiwanese researchers.
The award ceremony was held in conjunction with the Taiwan-German Bilateral MRI Imaging Workshop at the university. (THN)