The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) announced the inclusion of Taiwan scholars Chiang Ann-shyn and Chu Yun-han on its list of 40 newly elected fellows during the Italy-based institution’s 27th General Meeting Nov. 14-17 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Both honorees are distinguished members of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top academic institution. Chiang was honored by TWAS for his contributions in the areas of biological systems and organisms, while Chu was recognized for his work in social and economic sciences.
Chiang primarily studies memory circuits within the brains of Drosophila, a genus of small flies, in the hope of increasing understanding of how genes and circuits orchestrate complex behaviors. Chu focuses on East Asian democratization and political economy and is known for launching the Asian Barometer Survey, the region’s foremost comparative survey.
TWAS praised Chiang on its website for his “outstanding contribution to our understanding of memory formation using a connectomics approach” and describes Chu as “a pioneer in developing theories and methods for studying the consolidation of young democracies through survey research.”
Earlier this year Hsu Yu-chin, an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica, was elected a 2016 TWAS Young Affiliate, an honor awarded annually since 2007 to exceptional scientists below the age of 40. His research focuses on econometric theory and applied econometrics.
TWAS was founded in 1983 by a group of distinguished scientists from the developing world who shared a belief that their home nations, by building their strength in science and engineering, could acquire the knowledge and skills to address such challenges as hunger, disease and poverty. Some 85 percent of the academy’s 1,176 elected fellows hail from developing countries, while the remainder are scientists and engineers whose work has had a significant impact in these nations.
To date, 53 members of Academia Sinica have been elected TWAS fellows, including Republic of China (Taiwan) Vice President Chen Chien-jen, who in 2005 was elected based on his work in the area of medical and health sciences. Another notable honoree is former Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986. (OC-E)
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