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Contents Message from the Dean
05 Chairpersons of Departments and Graduate Institutes
▌Prof. Gerard Jennhwa Chang(張鎮華)- Department of Mathematics ▌Prof. Yee Bob Hsiung(熊怡)- Department of Physics ▌Prof. Pi-Tai Chou(周必泰)- Department of Chemistry ▌Prof. Wen-Shan Chen(陳文山)- Department of Geosciences▌Prof. Li-Jen Weng(翁儷禎)- Department of Psychology ▌Prof. Jinn-Guey Lay(賴進貴)- Department of Geography ▌Prof. Chun-Chieh Wu(吳俊傑)- Department of Atmospheric Sciences ▌Prof. Ling-Yun Chiao(喬凌雲)- Graduate Institute of Oceanography
10 Honors and Awards
▌Prof. Yu Wang(王瑜)- Former Dean of College of Science, Elected as An Academician▌Prof. Chin-Lung Wang(王金龍)Received the 13th National Chair Professor Award,
Ministry of Education▌Awards Received by Faculty Members
16 Research Highlights
▌Prof. Chien-Chung Chen(陳建中) The Hierarchical Processing of Visual Information in the Ventral Stream of the Visual Cortex of Human Brain
▌Prof. Jung-Kai Chen(陳榮凱) Explicit Birational Geometry of Three Dimensional Varieties
▌Prof. Guang-Yu Guo(郭光宇) Ab Initio Studies of Spin Hall Effect in Solids
▌Prof. Xiao-Gang He(何小剛) Studies of New Physics beyond the Standard Model
▌Prof. Chuan-Chou Shen(沈川洲) NTU Geoscientist Helps Provide Evidence of Extreme-life Evolution at Lost City in the North Atlantic
▌Prof. Din-Ping Tsai(蔡定平) Plasmonic Metamaterials for Nanophotonics
▌Prof. Jenn-Nan Wang(王振男) Inverse Problems and Related Questions
▌Prof. Min-Zu Wang(王名儒) The Fruitful Achievements in Rare Baryonic B Meson Decays by the NTUHEP Group at the Belle B-factory
▌Prof. Chun-Chieh Wu(吳俊傑) Targeted Observation, Data Assimilation, and Tropical Cyclone Dynamics and Predictability
33 Scholarly Exchange
▌Visiting Scholars ▌Visits Abroad
– Asst. Prof. Shi-Wei Chu(朱士維) Visiting Tubingen University
– Prof. Ying-Chih Lin(林英智) Visiting University of Heidelberg
– Asst. Prof. Ya-Hsuan Liou(劉雅瑄) Visiting University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
41 Teaching and Learning
▌MERIT Volunteers in the Republic of the Marshall Islands ▌Joint Field Course on Geomorphology and Neotectonics in Taiwan ▌Department of Mathematics Establishes the Shing Tung Yau Award in
Math to Cultivate New Generation of Master Mathematicians ▌Exploring Taiwan -- Geographical Environment and Resources ▌Interdisciplinary Science Training Program▌Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2008/2009 Academic Year ▌Distinguished/Outstanding Teaching Awards for 2008/2009 Academic Year
– Distinguished Teaching Award (University) for 2008/2009 – Outstanding Teaching Award (University) for 2008/2009 – Outstanding Teaching Award (College) for 2008/2009
53 Academic Exchange Agreements
▌Inter - College ▌Inter - Department ▌The Frontier Science Symposium
57 New Buildings and Facilities
▌Chemistry Department Building Officially Opened for Use ▌Astronomy-Mathematics Building ▌800 MHz High-Field NMR Spectrometer ▌NTU Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics
64 International and Exchange Students
▌Research and Relaxation in Taiwan: Christopher Butler(克瑞斯) ▌Study and Life in Taiwan: Boukare Tapsoba(卜佳利) ▌My Experience in NTU: Katherine Buck(貝凱林) ▌Reminescence of An Exchange Student: Victoria Illingsworth(殷凡雅) ▌One Year in Berkeley: Wan-Schwin Allen Cheng(鎮萬勳)
67 Achievements of Alumni
▌Sun-Yung Alice Chang(張聖容): Analyst in Conformal Land ▌Agostinelli Award Received by Mathematician Tai-Ping Liu(劉太平)
72 Facts and Figures - Faculty and Students
3
Looking back over the last five years since I
became the Dean of the College of Science (CoS)
on August 1, 2005, we have encountered many
challenges and opportunities. I wish to express my
gratitude towards my colleagues at the CoS, now
numbering 232 in all, including 158 Professors, 39
Associate Professors, 33 Assistant Professors, and 2
instructors. Without their dedication towards teaching
and research, and the capable leadership of chairs
and directors, our College would never have
achieved what we have done in terms of research,
teaching, and service to Taiwanese society. As
shown in the pages of this Annual Report, whatever
tasks we undertake would contribute to the goal of
National Taiwan University – to be a comprehensive
research university.
This Annual Report is specially prepared to
recognize the objectives reached by our faculty
members, in terms of their research. This year, 9 of
our faculties have won NSC award among a total
of 90 awardees in 2010 in Taiwan (30 at National
Taiwan University), not to mention the excellent
performance of our alumni who are role models
in their fields. Herewith, I express my heartfelt
congratulations to those whose academic pursuits
have contributed to the fame of National Taiwan
University worldwide.
I also would like to thank the chairpersons of
each department for their tireless leadership and
their efforts in supporting the research endeavors of
their faculty members by upgrading their research
facilities, forging academic links with scholars abroad,
and liaising with other institutions to collaborate
on cutting edge research. While strengthening our
student exchange programs at the University and
College levels, our flagship course “Exploring
Taiwan" will continue to engage international
students, who attend NTU as degree or exchange
students. Their presence in the University campus
would showcase their multicultural background, and
they would benefit from their education in Taiwan;
this goes hand-in-hand with the increasing overseas
exchange opportunities that NTU provides for our
students. Joint courses with our partners in the world
Message from the Dean
ProfileProfessor Ching-Hua Lo (羅清華) is Distinguished
Professor of Geology at National Taiwan University. He
attended Princeton University for his graduate study and
earned his Ph.D. in Geochronology in 1990. He joined the
Department of Geosciences in 1990, served as department
chair from 2002-2005, and has been Dean of the College
of Science since 2005. Professor Lo also serves as panel
convener for the Earth Science Division at the National
Science Council of Taiwan, guest editor and member of the
editorial board of several international journals and book
series, and council member for numerous geosciences
societies in Taiwan. Currently, he is President of the
Geological Society located in Taipei and Vice President of
the solid earth section of the Asia Oceania Geosciences
Society (AOGS). Professor Lo's research work has focused
on isotope geochronology and its applications to tectonic
processes in Asia. He has published more than 140 scientific
papers, edited two special issues for the Journal of Asian
Earth Sciences, and one volume of Geodynamics Series
for the American Geophysical Union. His contribution has
been greatly recognized by his peers with many honors and
awards, including the Best Paper Award from the Geological
Society located in Taipei, the Outstanding Research Award
and Distinguished Research Award from the National
Science Council, the Academic Award and National Chair
Professorship from the Ministry of Education, and NTU
Chair Professorships in Taiwan. He has also been elected
Fellow of Geological Society of America and Mineralogical
Society of America.
Email: [email protected]://argonlab.gl.ntu.edu.tw/
4
would most likely be a popular module of teaching to
prepare our young students to study abroad, apart
from sporadic visits to attend overseas courses;
moreover several of our departments prepare the
best and the brightest students in high school for
furthering their science education.
With the establishment of one more department,
in addition to the original nine in 2005, I am confident
that our faculty and students will continue to benefit
from a supportive and nurturing environment. Our
new buildings and facilities are being inaugurated to
provide an ideal teaching and learning environment
for our faculty and students in our College. I hope
that this Annual Report accurately reflects our
research and teaching endeavors over the past one
and a half years, and highlights the recent major
accomplishments of our faculty and students. ▓
5
Chairpersons of Departments and Graduate Institutes
6
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Prof. Gerard Jennhwa Chang (張鎮華) Department of Mathematics
Prof. Chang got his PhD degree majoring in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1982. He has taught in the National Central University and the National Chiao Tung University, before joining the National Taiwan University in 2011 as Professor of Mathematics. During his stay at the National Chiao Tung University, he served as the chairperson of the Department of Applied Mathematics from August 1993 to July 1995, and the Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs from September 1998 to July 2000. He was the Project Coordinator for Mathematics, National Science Council of the Republic of China from July 1991 to June 1992, and from January 1994 to December 1996. He acted as the director of the National Center for Theoretical Science at Taipei from January 2005 to July 2009. He serves as the chairperson of the Department of Mathematics from August 2007 to July 2010.
Prof. Chang is a Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications. He received the Distinguished Award of the National Science Council in 1991-1992 and 1994-1995; and subsequently
the Academic Award from the Ministry of Education in 2008. His research interests are in graph theory, algorithm, combinatorial optimization, discrete mathematics and network theory. He has published one book and more than one hundred papers. He is now an associate editor for several journals, including Discrete Optimization and Journal of Combinatorial Optimization. He has been a plenary or main invited speaker for many conferences, including the International Congress of Chinese Mathematician and Pacific Rim Conference on Mathematics.
During his chairship of the Department of Mathematics, Prof. Chang is active in hiring faculties, reforming the course structure, reorganizing the department committees, planning the moving event to the Astronomy-Mathematics Building, and making connections with students.
Prof. Yee Bob Hsiung (熊怡) Department of Physics
Prof. Hsiung was Associate Head of the Experimental Physics Project Department of Particle Physics Division at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory before joining National Taiwan University in 2003 as Professor of Department of Physics.
He was Wilson Fellow from 1989 to 1994, Scientist I from 1994 to 1999, and Scientist II from 1999 to 2003 of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He was also Co-Spokesperson of E832 (KTeV) experiment from 1992 to 1997, and Detector Coordinator of KTeV Project from 1994 to 1996 at Fermilab.
Prof. Hsiung received the Outstanding Scholar Award from the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship (FAOS) in Taiwan from 2003 to 2008 and Excellence of Academic Research Award from National Taiwan University for 2005 and 2006.
He is a Fellow of American Physical Society since 2000, a Fellow of The Physical Society of Republic of China since 2005, a member of Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA), a Committee member of ILC World Wide Study Group, a member of JPARC PAC from 2006 to 2007, and Vice-President of The Physical Society of Republic of China since 2010.
His research interests are in Experimental High Energy Physics, Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, especially on topics of matter and anti-matter asymmetry, kaon and B-meson decays, new physics at Large Hadron Collider, as well as neutrino oscillation.
Prof. Hsiung is at present Chairs of Department of Physics, Graduate Institute of Physics, Graduate Institute of Astrophysics, and Graduate Institute of Applied Physics.
7// Chairpersons of Departments and Graduate Institutes
Prof. Pi-Tai Chou (周必泰) Department of Chemistry
Prof. Chou received his Ph.D. degree from Florida State University, Tallahassee, in 1985, and is currently the Chairperson of the Chemistry Department and a Chair Professor at National Taiwan University (NTU). Prior to joining NTU, he was a DOE postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (1985–1987), an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia (1987–1994), and a professor at National Chung Cheng University (1994–2000) where he served as chairperson from 1996-1999. Prof. Chou has been awarded Outstanding Research Fellow of National Science Council as well as received Academic Award and National Chair Award from Ministry of Education, Taiwan. Prof. Chou is a Fellow of the Royal Chemistry Society, England. His research interests are in the area of ultrafast phenomena on excited-state proton/charge and energy transfer reactions; and syntheses, photophysics, and applications of materials suited for OLEDs, solar energy cells, and nanotechnology.
Prof. Wen-Shan Chen (陳文山) Department of Geosciences
Prof. Wen-Shan Chen is Head of the Department of Geosciences at the National Taiwan University. He was with the Faculty of Geosciences from 1988 to 2010. His research interests are in Sedimentology, Neotectonics, Paleoearthquake, and Quaternary geology. His previous studies focus on the sequence stratigraphy of the foreland and collisional basins on western and eastern Taiwan, as well as paleoseismologic and tectono-geomorphic studies. Prof. Wen-Shan Chen has taken on three integrated projects which include “A Study of long-term slip rate and recurrence interval of active fault”, “Fault behavior along the Longitudinal Valley Fault, Eastern Taiwan: Paleoseismologic and tectono-geomorphic studies”, and “Seimologic and geologic studies for the 512 Wenchuan earthquake”.
8
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Prof. Li-Jen Weng (翁儷禎) Department of Psychology
Professor Weng was Director of the Student Counseling Center at the National Taiwan University from 2005 to 2007 before serving as Chair of the Department of Psychology in 2008. She has been awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award and the Fu-Se Nien Research Award from the National Taiwan University. Her research interests are in factor analysis, structural equation modeling, Likert-type rating scales, and well-being of older adults. Professor Weng is currently President of the Taiwanese Psychological Association.
Prof. Jinn-Guey Lay (賴進貴) Department of Geography
Prof. Lay received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1993. Apart from being well supported continuously by the National Science Council with research grants, he has been awarded with Outstanding Teaching Award from National Taiwan University, and the Medal for service in Land Administration from the Ministry of Interior, Taiwan. His research interests include spatially integrated social science, digital humanity, dissemination of GIS technology, historical cartography, and geographic education. As a prominent figure in invigorating geographic education in Taiwan, he has served several committees to help design the national curriculum standards for social study and geography of K-12. He is also the chief editor of a series of high school geography textbooks which are widely used in Taiwan. Prof. Lay is therefore well recognized for the successful introduction of geo-spatial technology to K-12 education which helps to enhance the quality and status of geography education in Taiwan.
9// Chairpersons of Departments and Graduate Institutes
Prof. Chun-Chieh Wu (吳俊傑) Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Prof. Wu received his Ph. D. from the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May, 1993. After graduation, he worked as a Visiting Research Scientist at Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) at Princeton University from 1993 to 1995. With research experience at GFDL, he returned to Taiwan to work as an Associate Professor and became Professor at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University (NTU) in 2000. Subsequently, Prof. Wu received the Academia Sinica Research Award for Junior Researchers in 2001; NTU Teaching Awards in 2003, 2006 and 2007, and NTU Outstanding Teaching Award in 2008; NTU Research Achievement Award in 2004; Outstanding Research Awards from National Science Council (NSC) in both 2007 and 2009; and Gold Bookmarker Prize from Wu Ta-You Foundation in 2008. In addition to these recognitions, Prof. Wu is also a member of American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, Chinese Geoscience Union (CGU), Chinese Meteorological Society, and Asia Oceania Geoscience Society (AOGS).
Prof. Wu served as the Chief Principal Investigator of the “National Priority Typhoon Research Project” of NSC from 2002 to 2008. His research focuses on the dynamics of typhoons, typhoon-terrain interactions, typhoon intensity change, typhoon-ocean interaction, numerical simulation and data assimilation of typhoons, quasi-balanced (potential vorticity) dynamics of typhoons and Targeted
Observations based on DOTSTAR (Dropwindsonde Observations for Typhoon Surveillance near the TAiwan Region).
Prof. Wu is presently Distinguished Professor and Chair of Department of Atmospheric Sciences, as well as Director of Typhoon Research Center at NTU, Adjunct Research Scientist of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Columbia University, President of Atmospheric Sciences Section of AOGS, and Editor in Chief of Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (TAO), official journal of CGU.
Prof. Ling-Yun Chiao (喬凌雲) Graduate Institute of Oceanography
Prof. Chiao, Professor and Chair of Graduate Institute of Oceanography, received his Ph.D. at University of Washington, Seattle in 1991. His research interests include Marine Geophysics, geophysical inverse theory, thermal and mechanical structure of literosphere, and mantle dynamics.
Honors and Awards
11
Academia Sinica held its biennial Convocation
of Academicians from July 5-8 culminating in the
announcement of the 2010 list of Academicians on July
8, 2010. This year, a total of 18 new Academicians and
5 Honorary Academicians were elected. Distinguished
Professor Yu Wang (王瑜)from the Chemistry Department
was elected as one of the Academicians in the Division of
Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Prof. Wang has made
extensive contributions in teaching, research, as well as
services to the scientific community in the last 30 years.
She would serve as a role model for female scientists in the
academic community.
Prof. Wang received her B.S. degree in Chemistry
from the National Taiwan University in 1966, and Ph.D.
degree from the University of Illinois in 1973. She joined
the Chemistry Department at National Taiwan University
as Associate Professor in 1979, and became Professor in
1981, and Distinguished Professor in 2006. She served as
the Director General of the Department of Mathematics and
Physical Sciences, National Science Council, 1998-2001;
and later, Dean of College of Science, National Taiwan
University, 2002-2005.
Prof. Wang has served on various academic and
professional societies both in Taiwan and internationally,
such as the President of Asian Crystallographic Association
(AsCA), Commission Chair of “Charge, Spin and
Momentum Density" (CSMD) and Honorary Member of
Phi Tau Phi Honorary Scholastic Society.
Her scholastic record is seen in numerous publications
in the area of electron density distribution and chemical
bonding; spin crossover phenomena/light induced excited
spin state trapping; and molecular magnets. ▓
Prof. Yu Wang (王瑜)Former Dean of College of Science, Elected as An Academician
// Research Highlights
12
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Prof. Chin-Lung Wang (王金龍)
Received the 13th National Chair Professor Award, Ministry of Education
Prof. Chin-Lung Wang is an internationally renowned
geometer, who initiated the study of K equivalence relation
in birational geometry in 1997 and applied it to the minimal
model theory and degeneration problems of Calabi-Yau
manifolds. His 2000 work on the invariance of elliptic
genera under K equivalence is one of the most important
results in higher dimensional geometry in the last decade.
It implies that the genus-one partition function in string
theory is independent of the choice of the underlying Calabi-
Yau manifolds within birational equivalence. Because of
this work, he was awarded the Silver Medal in the 2001
International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians at the age
of 33. Till now, he is still the youngest one to be awarded.
Since then he started a long term project to study the
quantum invariance under K equivalence. Indeed in his 1998
Harvard thesis, Wang proved the equivalence of Betti and
Hodge numbers among K equivalent manifolds. However the
classical topological product is not preserved. This indicates
the necessity of quantum corrections. In his recent joint
works with Y.P. Lee and H.W. Lin, they proved that the big
quantum cohomology ring could be analytically continued
from one Calabi-Yau model into another under the flop
transitions. This is one of the best results in Gromov-Witten
theory in recent years and was accepted for publication
by Annals of Mathematics in 2007. Wang’s theory on K
equivalence is nowadays a most studied concept in his field.
Wang’s another important research is on elliptic non-
linear partial differential equations. In his recent joint project
with C.S. Lin, they studied the periodic mean field equations
with singular data. These equations are important in
prescribed curvature problems, Chern-Simons-Higgs theory,
as well as in the study of mean field limits of Euler flow.
They combined the methods in algebraic geometry as well as
critical point theory of Green functions to achieve a complete
understanding of this problem. Indeed their work is the first
instance to show how non-linearity is strongly connected to
geometry instead of just topology, even in the simplest case.
Their work has also been accepted for publication by Annals
of Mathematics in 2008.
Wang is also well known for his devotion and passion
13// Honors and Awards
in higher mathematical education. From 1998 to 2009, he
trained more than 20 talented students in the National Center
for Theoretic Sciences and sent them to the most prestigious
institutes in US including Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley,
Stanford, Cal Tech etc. to pursue the PhD degree. Some of
them are now young faculties at Harvard, Wisconsin etc.
Meanwhile the algebraic geometry team of Wang, J. Chen
and H.W. Lin is now running the highest-level weekly-
based seminars at National Taiwan University and keep on
promoting young mathematicians. Some students in their
group are now producing first class research. Their algebraic
geometry school is thus solid and sound.
To encourage more young talented people to pursue basic
sciences, since 2009 Wang established the Yau Award for
excellent high school mathematical research projects. He
obtained donations from industry to provide four-year full
scholarship to the award winners who choose Mathematics as
their major in college.
Wang had been a faculty member at National Taiwan
University (1998-2000), Tsinhua University (2000-2004),
Central University (2004-2008), and he returned to National
Taiwan University since 2008. Wang is currently in the
executive committee of National Center of Theoretic
Sciences; he is also a center scientist at Taida Institute of
Mathematical Sciences, and an editor of the Asian Journal of
Mathematics.
To encourage more young talented people to pursue basic
sciences, since 2009 Wang established the Yau Award for
excellent high school mathematical research projects. He
obtained donations from industry to provide four-year full
scholarship to the award winners who choose Mathematics as
their major in college.
Wang had been a faculty member at National Taiwan
University (1998-2000), Tsinhua University (2000-2004),
Central University (2004-2008), and he returned to National
Taiwan University since 2008. Wang is currently in the
executive committee of National Center of Theoretic
Sciences; he is also a center scientist at Taida Institute of
Mathematical Sciences, and an editor of the Asian Journal of
Mathematics. ▓
Awards Received by Faculty Members
14
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Dr. Sunney I. Chan (陳長謙)Department of Chemistry
Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Ching-Ray Chang (張慶瑞)Department of Physics
Fellow of American Physics Society (APS).
Dr. George Tai-Jen Chen (陳泰然) Department of Atmospheric Sciences
International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement from University at Albany, SUNY.
Dr. Sheng-Hsien Chiu (邱勝賢)Department of Chemistry
Distinguished Young Chemist Award from Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS).
Dr. Pi-Tai Chou (周必泰)Department of Chemistry
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry(FRSC)
Dr. Jinn-Yuh Hsu (徐進鈺)Department of Geography
Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Bor-Ming Jahn (江博明)Department of Geosciences
The Order of the Academic Palms (Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques)
Dr. Tien-Yau Luh (陸天堯)Department of Chemistry
Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).
Dr. Shie-Ming Peng (彭旭明)Department of Chemistry
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).
Dr. Din-Ping Tsai (蔡定平)Department of Physics
Member, OSA Fellows and Honorary Members Committee, Optical Society of America (OSA), 2008, 2009.
Dr. Chun-Hsien Chen (陳俊顯)Department of Chemistry
2009 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council, the 8th Y. Z. Hsu Scientific Paper Award(有庠科技論文獎)
Dr. Chung-Hsuan Chen(陳仲瑄)Department of Chemistry
Academician of Academia Sinica in 2010.
Dr. Sheng-Hsien Chiu (邱勝賢)Department of Chemistry
2009 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council and the 7th Y. Z. Hsu Scientific Paper Award(有庠科技論文獎)
Dr. Pi-Tai Chou (周必泰)Department of Chemistry
2009 Outstanding NSC Research Fellow Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Jim-Min Fang (方俊民)Department of Chemistry
53th Academic Award of Ministry of Education and the 4th Excellent Medicine Technology Award from TienTe Lee Biomedical Foundation(永信李天德醫藥基金會)
International
National
15// Honors and Awards
Dr. Chun-Hsiung Hsia (夏俊雄)Department of Mathematics
Young Scholar Award of Kenda Foundation.
Dr. Ying-Jer Kao (高英哲)Department of Physics
Academia Sinica Research Award for Junior Research Investigators.
Dr. Char-Shine Liu (劉家瑄)Department of Oceanography
“2004-2008 Most Cited Article Award" of the Journal of Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (TAO) from Chinese Geoscience Union.
Dr. Wei-Hsin Sun (孫維新)Department of Physics
NTU Outstanding Service to Society.
Dr. Din-Ping Tsai (蔡定平)Department of Physics
2008 Ho Chin Tui Award(侯金堆傑出榮譽獎), Research Achievement Award from Taiwan Information Storage Association (TISA) andOutstanding Research Award of Pan Wen Yuan Foundation(財團法人潘文淵文教基金會), Taiwan, 2010.
Dr. Feng-Ming Tsao (曹峰銘)Department of Psychology
Ta-You Wu Memorial Award(吳大猷先生紀念獎).
Dr. Chin-Lung Wang (王金龍)Department of Mathematics
13th National Chair Professor Award of Ministry of Education.
Dr. Yu Wang (王瑜)Department of Chemistry
2009 Outstanding Women in Science Award and the 14th Outstanding Achievement Award from Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society of the Republic of China(中華民國斐陶斐榮謍學會)and elected Academician of Academia Sinica in 2010.
Dr. Yih-Min Wu (吳逸民)Department of Geosciences
2009 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Hong-Chang Yang (楊鴻昌)Department of Physics
2008 Medal of Magnetic Technology from Taiwan Association for Magnetic Technology.
Dr. Jeng-Daw Yu (余正道)Department of Mathematics
Young Scholar Award of Kenda Foundation.
Dr. Chien-Chung Chen (陳建中)Department of Psychology
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Jung-Kai Chen (陳榮凱)Department of Mathematics
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Guang-Yu Guo (郭光宇)Department of Physics
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Xiao-Gang He (何小剛)Department of Physics
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Chuan-Chou Shen (沈川洲)Department of Geosciences
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Din-Ping Tsai (蔡定平)Department of Physics
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Jenn-Nan Wang (王振男)Department of Mathematics
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Min-Zu Wang (王名儒)Department of Physics
Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Dr. Chun-Chieh Wu(吳俊傑)Department of Atmospheric Sciences
2010 Outstanding Research Award of National Science Council.
Research Highlights
17
// Research Highlights
Prof. Chien-Chung Chen (陳建中) Department of PsychologyThe Hierarchical Processing of Visual Information in the Ventral Stream of the Visual Cortex of Human Brain
As a human being, we are very good in connecting dots. Our visual system is very efficient at organizing image features projected onto our eyes into meaningful objects. Such ability allows us to quickly identify objects, such as sources of food, predators, incoming cars or words you are reading in a scene, and thus is important not only for our survival but also the quality of life. Since we are doing this task all the time and effortlessly, we tend to forget how difficult it is to recognize an object in a scene. Despite billions of dollars being invested in dozens of years of research by thousands of scientists, the object recognition ability of a machine is still no match to that of a human being. This question of how the visual system perceive an object in an image is thus the central question I ask in my research.
When a light hits the retina of our eyes, a band of tiny photosensitive cells called photoreceptor on the retina absorbs the incident light and turns it into electric signals. Each photoreceptor only respond to lights from a very limited area in the visual field. A series of neuron then convey the electric signal from the photoreceptor to the part of the brain that is called the primary visual cortex, or V1. Each V1 neuron responds to lines or edges of a particular orientation in a localized region. That is, what the visual cortex does is to decompose an image into a set of line segments.
However, our percept of the world has little esemblance of a collection of line segments. Instead, what we perceive in a scene are meaningful objects. How then does the visual system derive the percept of objects from the decomposed line segments? I believe that the visual system may synthesize image elements in a hierarchical fashion. The human brain contains several distinct areas that are related to visual processing. There are connecting neurons that link those brain areas such that the information about a visual scene can pass from one area to the other successively. Notice that the brain areas are not relay information. There are quite a bit of information integration between brain areas. A neuron in a brain area receives signals from several neurons. As a result, the neurons in each area is responsible to a more complex feature of a visual stimulus than the neurons in the previous area. Such integration is not arbitrary. For instance, for a human observer, it is easy to perceive a circle on a background of randomly distributed and oriented image elements In Figure 1(a) but not in Figure 1(b) even though, as indicated in Figure 1(c) and (d), these two images are almost identical except image elements on the circle were swapped in places in Figure 1(b). That is, a human observer can only integrate image elements only if the orientation of those image elements were arranged in certain ways.
My research in the past 10 years has been to identify the spatiotemporal constraints of such integration process and to explore the underlying neural mechanisms. We started with recording the change of V1 neurons responses to a target line element with the presence of other line elements (flanker) on the other part of the visual field. We showed that the neural response is facilitated only when the flanker has the same orientation and locates at the collinear axis of the target which is at low contrast. We also showed such facilitation, unlike most neural connections, is multiplicative (i.e., depends on target contrast) rather than additive (i.e., depends on flanker contrast). We recently also showed that the necessary condition of such facilitation is not only collinear but also coplanar. Hence, it is important not only to determine the edge of two image regions but also the boundary of 3D objects. ▓
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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Prof. Jung-Kai Chen (陳榮凱) Department of MathematicsExplicit Birational Geometry of Three Dimensional Varieties
Birational geometry has been the major stream of algebraic geometry for decades. The goal of birational
geometry is to find a good model inside a birational equivalence class and to study their geometric properties.
In order to study the geometric properties of algebraic varieties and give a brief classification of varieties, one
usually uses some natural maps to deduce some fibration structure and then reduce the problem to lower
dimensional situation in some sense. One of the natural fibration is the Iitaka fibration, which is derived from
pluricanonical maps. From this point of view, one can always reduce the problem of classification to the study
of varieties of the following three categories: varieties of general type, varieties with Kodaira dimension zero,
and varieties with negative Kodaira dimension.
Given the general type variety, one would like to know when the pluricanonical map is birational. The
standard approach uses natural geometric fibration such as Albanese map or (pluri-)canonical maps.
// Research Highlights19
Therefore the remaining difficult cases are the varieties with small birational invariants that there is no natural
fibration structure. After working on varieties of general types for a couple of years, Prof. Jungkai Chen of the
Department of Mathematics and his collaborator, Prof. Meng Chen of Fudan University obtained an important
breakthough on threefolds of general type.
Their results are obtained by a systematic study of three dimensional singularities. Recall that for varieties
of dimension three, the minimal model always exists. However, the minimal model could have some mild
singularities called terminal singularities. These kinds of singularities are known to be isolated cDV quotient
and have been classified into 6 major types. Moreover, each single singularity admits a local deformation
into cyclic quotient terminal singularities, which is called the baskets of singularities. Then the usual
Riemann-Roch formula for non-singular varieties can be generalized into singular Riemann-Roch formula
by considering the contribution of singularities, which is computed by baskets of singularities. Their idea,
roughly speaking, is to solve for baskets with given small invariants. A priori, there could have infinitely many
solutions. They invented a new concept called “packing of baskets of singularites". This notion allows one
to resolve singularities in some sense while keeping the geometric invariants tractable. Then they are able to
derive various non-trivial inequalities by using the notion of packing. As a consequence, they show striking
result such as P12>0, P24>1 and m-th canonical map is birational for m ≥73. This is the first explicit result
ever without any extra assumption. Moreover, this is not too far from being sharp.
As pointed out by Prof. Chen already, their techniques are applicable to threefolds not necessarily
of general. In fact, they obtained some other explicit result for Fano threefolds and weighted complete
intersections. With their effort, one can say that our understanding of threefolds is almost as much as our
understanding of surfaces. ▓
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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Prof. Guang-Yu Guo (郭光宇) Department of PhysicsAb Initio Studies of Spin Hall Effect in Solids
Spin Hall effect refers to the generation of transverse spin current in a solid by an electric field or current.
Spin current generation is an important issue in the emerging spintronics technology. Therefore, spin Hall
effect has recently become an issue of intensive interest both theoretically and experimentally since the
theoretical proposals of the intrinsic spin Hall effect in hole-doped zincblende semiconductors by Murakami et
al [Science 301, 1348 (2003)] and in the two-dimensional electron gas at semiconductor interfaces by Sinova
et al [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 126603 (2004)]. This spin Hall effect (SHE) would enable spin current generation
in semiconductors without magnetic field or magnetic materials, and promise a tremendous potential of
combining spintronics with the well-developed semiconductor technology. Nevertheless, there were a number
of theoretical issues which need to be resolved. For example, are the results obtained from the Luttinger
model Hamiltonian by Murakami et al. valid for real semiconductors? It was also argued that the intrinsic spin
Hall effect would be cancelled by the orbital Hall effect, at least in the two-dimensional electron gas system.
Therefore, Prof. Guang-Yu Guo of Physics Department and co-workers have recently performed ab initio
// Research Highlights21
relativistic band theoretical calculations on the intrinsic SHE in the archetypical semiconductors Si, Ge, GaAs
and AlAs [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 226601 (2005)]. These results cover a large range of hole concentration which
is beyond the validity regime of the Luttinger model. They found that intrinsic spin Hall conductivity (SHC) in
hole-doped semiconductors Ge, GaAl and AlAs is large, showing the possibility of spin Hall effect beyond the
Luttinger Hamiltonian. The calculated orbital Hall conductivity is one order of magnitude smaller, indicating
no cancellation between the spin and orbital Hall effects in bulk semiconductors. Furthermore, it was found
that the spin Hall effect can be strongly manipulated by strains, and that the ac spin Hall conductivity in the
semiconductors is large in purity as in doped semiconductors.
Prof. Guo's theoretical work on intrinsic SHE in semiconductors caught the attention of his colleague
Prof. Yang-Fang Chen, where experimental team made the first measurement of SHE in technologically
important nitride semiconductors using optical circular dichroism. They found that the SHE in InGaN/GaN
superlattices can be strongly manipulated by the internal strains [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 136403; 98, 239902
(2007)]. Prof.. Guo set up a k-cubic Rashba-type spin-orbit coupled Hamiltonian for the wurtzite structure with
the effective Rashba coupling parameters as a function of strain determined by his ab initio relativistic band
structure calculations. Prof. Guo and a Ph.D. student of his then calculated the SHC for this Hamiltonian
within the linear-response Kubo formalism, and their theoretical predictions are in good agreement with
the experimental results of his experimental colleagues. This work therefore opens a new possibility to
manipulate the spin Hall effect in semiconductor heterostructures.
The intrinsic spin Hall effect in heavy transition metals may expect to be much larger than that in the
semiconductors. Furthermore, the Fermi degeneracy temperature is much higher than room temperature,
and hence the quantum coherence is more robust against the thermal agitations compared with the
semiconductors systems. Indeed, recent experiments for metallic systems show that platinum exhibits the
large SHE surviving even up to room temperature [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 156601 (2007)], whereas aluminum
and copper show relatively tiny SHE [Nature 442, 176 (2006)]. However, the mechanism of the SHE in
platinum was assumed to be extrinsic. Nonetheless, this material dependence strongly suggests a crucial
role of intrinsic contributions. Therefore, in order to unravel the origin and mechanism of the large SHE in Pt,
Prof. Guo and coworkers recently carried out ab initio calculations for the SHC in platinum within the Berry
phase formalism [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008) 096401]. They found that the intrinsic SHC is as large as ~2000 (
ђ /е)(ΩCM)-1 at low temperatures, and decreases down to ~200 ( ђ /е)(ΩCM)
-1 at room temperature. It is due
to the resonant contribution from the spin-orbit splitting of the doubly degenerated d-bands at high-symmetry
L and X points near the Fermi level. They also showed, by modeling these near-degeneracies by an effective
Hamiltonian, that the SHC has a peak near the Fermi energy and that the vertex correction due to impurity
scattering vanishes, indicating that the large SHE observed experimentally in platinum is of intrinsic nature.
■
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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Prof. Xiao-Gang He (何小剛) Department of PhysicsStudies of New Physics beyond the Standard Model
The running of the large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN this year, symbolizes the start of a new era for
high energy physics. The standard model (SM) of strong and electroweak interactions and many extensions
beyond will be tested to an unprecedented level of accuracy. New discoveries are anticipated. It can be
expected that the LHC will provide much needed clues for understanding unified laws of nature. The studies
of the SM and beyond are some of the most active research areas worldwide. At NTU, in the past few years,
Prof. Xiao-Gang He and his team have been making steady progresses in related areas and have obtained
interesting results. His active research earned him an Outstanding Research Award for 2009 from the
National Science Council. A few of these results are briefly summarized below.
1. Study of Anomalous + -> p + - Decay. In 2005 Fermilab HyperCP experimental group observed
anomalously large branching ratio for this decay which may be accounted for if there is a new particle of
mass 214 MeV. After a thorough study, Prof. He and his collaborators, G. Valencia and J. Tandean found
that the SM cannot explain the observed data, and showed that in the next minimal supersymmetric
standard model extension there is a light pesudoscalar particle which fits the picture very well. In order
to explain the data, they also found that the model parameters are constrained making some of the dark
matter candidate light enough to be detectable at the LHC. Their work was published in Physical Review
Letters (98, 081802(2007)). This work was reported by several international media groups, such as New
Scientist, PhysOrg.com, and Physicsweb.com. It also inspired several new experimental searches of light
particles.
2. Dark Matter (DM) and New Physics. In 2008, PAMELA group found an anomalously large excess
in positron cosmic ray in the energy range 10 to 100 GeV, but not antiproton cosmic ray. Latter ATIC
and FERMI-LAT groups also found electron and positron cosmic ray excesses. Although there are
discrepancies among themselves, they both show excesses. One of the leading explanations for these
excesses is DM annihilation. Prof. He and collaborators found that a theoretical model proposed (Phys.
Rev. D43, 22(1991)) many years ago by him and his collaborators, G. Joshi, H. Lew and R. Volkas, have
the right features to explain the data (Phys. Lett. B678, 168(2009)) and also made new predictions (Phys.
Rev. D81, 063522(2010)) which can be tested in the near future. Prof. He was invited by Mod. Phys. Lett.
A to write a brief review on this subject (Mod. Phys. Lett. A52, 2139(2009)).
3. Neutrino Physics in the LHC Era. Neutrino physics is one of the areas Prof. He has been making
continuous contributions. In 1989 with his collaborators, R. Foot, G. Joshi, and H. Lew, they proposed the
famous Type III Seesaw model (Z. Phys. C44, 441(1989)). Because of gauge interactions associated with
the triplet neutrino in the model, many of the interesting features can be tested at the LHC (Phys. Rev.
D80, 093003(2009). It is widely studied by researchers in the field now. In 2003, with his collaborator Zee,
they independently proposed what is called the Tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing pattern which describes
the data very well (Phys. Lett. B569, 87(2003)). Following that, Prof. He and his collaborators have
made further progress in understanding the mixing pattern. Two of the papers on this subject, JHEP
0604,039,(2006) and arXiv: hep-ph/0507217, have been listed as Top 400 most Cited Articles during 2009
in hep-ph by the authoritative SLAC data base SPIRES on high energy physics. ■
// Research Highlights23
Prof. Chuan-Chou Shen (沈川洲) Department of GeosciencesNTU Geoscientist Helps Provide Evidence of Extreme-life Evolution at Lost City in the North Atlantic
NTU has made the pages of the esteemed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America. In the January 26th issue of the internationally recognized journal, Prof. Chuan-
Chou Shen (沈川洲) of the Department of Geosciences and Prof. Debbie Kelley of School of Oceanography,
University of Washington, together with fellow researchers, announced evidence suggesting a form of
extreme-life evolution in microorganisms in the ocean.
It is the first time to combine U-Th dating technology and genomic analysis to reconstruct the micro-
(a) The Lost City is located on the southern edge of the Atlantis Massif in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.
(b) The area is covered with towering carbonate chimneys that grow to heights of tens of meters.
(c) Methanosarcinales and other methanotrophic microbes grow on the surfaces of newly formed chimneys. In this anaerobic environment, these microbes survive by relying on the methane and hydrogenrich hydrothermal fluids flowing from the carbonate columns.
(d) An approximately one-meter long fish glides past carbonate chimneys at the Lost City.
(Photos provided by Prof. Debbie Kelley of School of Oceanography, University of Washington. Seattle)
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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bioevolution of the last 1,200 years in the rare biosphere of the
Lost City Hydrothermal Field at a depth of about 750 meters in
the North Atlantic.
Lost City is a unique site with carbonate chimneys of varying
ages located on the ocean floor about 30 degrees north latitude
15 kilometers west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It has been
hydrothermally active for at least 30,000 years. These giant
columns are formed by the mixing of the inorganic minerals in
expulsions of hot, alkaline hydrothermal fluid with the surrounding
cold seawater, and can remain active for at least 300 years.
Lost City comprises an environment that possibly existed
billions of years ago during the origin and early evolution of life
on Earth, and that is thought to also exist on other planetary
objects with aqueous fluids. The porous interior walls of the
chimneys are inhabited by archaeal biofilm communities
supported by a flow of methane and hydrogen-rich hydrothermal
fluids and dominated by a single phylotype of archaea called
Lost City Methanosarcinales.
For the study, the researchers conducted a genomic analysis of an extensive sampling of the carbonate-
hosted archaeal and bacterial communities inhabiting a wide variety of chimneys and correlated the results
with the ages of the chimneys using the U-Th dating method, over a 1,200-year period.
They found that rare genetic sequences in young chimneys were generally more abundant in older
chimneys. This is a sign that members of the rare biosphere can gain dominance in the ecosystem when
environmental conditions change. The researchers believe that the long history of selection, possibly tens
or hundreds of thousands of years, during many cycles of chimney growth has resulted in micro-biodiversity,
related species, and that each of these species is pre-adapted to a certain makeup of reoccurring
environmental conditions.
The findings indicate these microorganisms developed diverse survival strategies. Though dominant
species vary between the different environments, micro-biodiversity is not greatly altered. It appears
these microorganisms can remain rare for over a millennium before gaining dominance once changes in
environmental conditions occur.
These results support the Rare Biosphere model, a fundamental prediction of which is, maintained in the
journal article: “when environmental conditions change, some of these rare, pre-adapted taxa can rapidly
exploit the new conditions, increase in abundance, and out-compete the once abundant organisms that were
adapted to the past conditions."▓
// Research Highlights25
Prof. Din-Ping Tsai (蔡定平) Department of PhysicsPlasmonic Metamaterials for Nanophotonics
Metamaterials, which are made by artificial nano-cells arrays, has created some important and useful
optical phenomena and has raised an enormous amount of interest worldwide. Since the interactions
between light and matter in this system are controlled by the arrangements of the nano-cell arrays,
Metamaterials has brought great potentials to Nanophotonics, such as the possibility to create a structure
with negative refractive materials, cloaking and invisibility, etc. These potential applications are taken
seriously by the physicists and researchers as very active and important topics of the next-generation
nanotechnology research and development, which is also the prominent field that many top-notch scientists
are devoted to.
We have bridged a very active cooperation with Prof. Nikolay Zheludev from Optoelectronics Research
Center (ORC) of University of Southampton since 2008. Mutual visit and exchange of 27 persons including
the President of Univ. of Southampton and 9 joint papers with the U.K. were conducted in the last 3 years.
The corporation has led to very fruitful outcomes such as journal papers, jointly organized workshops, and
joint experiments; this scheme provides an exceptionally excellent opportunity to further consolidate the
Fig. 1: (a) Schematic cut-away section of a light well, which comprises a nanohole through a stack of alternating metal and dielectric layers, into which an electron beam is launched. Light is generated as electrons travel down the well and encounter a periodic material environment. (b) Scanning electron microscope image of a light well fabricated in a goldsilica multilayer. (c) The alternating metal-dielectric layer structure as seen at an exposed corner of the sample.
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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research connection in plasmonics and nanophotonics between NTU and Univ. of Southampton.
In the research work published in PRL (2009), we report that the classical phenomenon of optical
activity, which is traditionally associated with chirality (helicity) of organic molecules, proteins, and inorganic
structures, can be observed in artificial planar media which exhibit neither 3D nor 2D chirality. We observe the
effect in the microwave and optical parts of the spectrum at oblique incidence to regular arrays of nonchiral
subwavelength metamolecules in the form of strong circular dichroism and birefringence indistinguishable
from those of chiral three-dimensional media.
We also found a new type of tunable, nanoscale radiation source called "Light well", which is created by
the passage of a free-electron beam through a nanohole in a periodically layered metal-dielectric structure.
We demonstrated that tunable light can be generated at an intensity of similar to 200 W/cm(2) as electrons
with energies in the 20-40 keV range are injected into gold-silica well structures with a lateral size of just
a few hundred nanometers. If the loss of the Light well can be decreased or the intensity of the incident
beam can be increased, this device will provide a coherent and high-intensive nano-laser source. Due to its
tunable nature, this nano-laser source will play an important role on the future developments of the photonics
industry, especially in the applications of the light sources such as integrated optoelectronics, nano-laser, and
flat panel display, etc. ▓
// Research Highlights27
Prof. Jenn-Nan Wang (王振男) Department of MathematicsInverse Problems and Related Questions
My research has been focused on several issues related to inverse problems. In the experiment of
nondestructive evaluation, one would like to determine the shape and location of an unknown embedded
region by the knowledge of suitable boundary information. This problem can be formulated as an inverse
inclusion problem with boundary measurements. Based on Ikehata's enclosure method, we (jointly with Prof.
Uhlmann) designed a reconstruction scheme for this problem. Special solutions called complex geometrical
optics solutions play a decisive role in this method. This type of special solutions contains a complex-valued
phase function. The effectiveness of the method depends on the level set of the real part of the phase
function. A usual choice of the phase function is a linear function with complex coefficients. Using complex
geometrical optics solutions with linear phases, one is able to reconstruct the convex hull of the unknown
region by boundary data. In the two dimensional case, it turns out that one has more freedom in choosing
the phase functions. Roughly, any harmonic function can be the real part of the phase function. To form a
phase function, we simply take the harmonic conjugate of the real part as the imaginary part. In other words,
the phase function is an analytic function in the complex plane. One useful choice is polynomial functions.
With the complex geometrical optics solutions with polynomial phases, we are able to determine much more
information of the unknown embedded object from the boundary data. For example, theoretically, we can
reconstruct a complete star-shaped object.
The inverse inclusion problem is an ill-posed problem. Numerical evidences show that the ill-posedness
depends on the relative locations of the unknown object and the boundary where the measurements are
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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performed. We (jointly with Dr Nagayasu and Prof Uhlmann) recently provided a rigorous proof of this
phenomenon. Our approach is to study the linearized problem at a known object, say a disc with radius r.
Let the given domain be a disc of radius R with R>r. We proved a log type stability estimate for the linearized
Dirichlet-to-Neumann map with explicit coefficients depending on the ration r/R. The coefficient becomes
bigger when r/R is smaller. This indicates that the inverse problem becomes more ill-posed if the object is
buried deeply into the domain.
Unique continuation property is also a useful tool in certain inverse problems. For example, quantitative
strong unique continuation estimates can be used in the size estimate problem. Jointly with Prof. Lin, Dr.
Nagayasu, and Prof. Nakamura, we recently derived quantitative uniqueness estimates for several partial
differential equations or systems. The main tool is the Carleman-type estimate. This kind of estimate is well-
known in proving qualitative unique continuation property. But it turns out that the Carleman-type estimate
is also powerful in deriving quantitative uniqueness estimates. Especially, the Carleman-type estimate is
very effective in treating systems of partial differential equations with less regular coefficients. For instance,
we are able to prove (optimal) three ball inequalities for the isotropic elasticity system with Lipschitz Lame
coefficients. The qualitative strong unique continuation property for the isotropic elasticity system with
Lipschitz coefficients then follows easily from those three ball inequalities. ▓
// Research Highlights29
◄Fig.2 An artistic drawing of the new Belle detector
The experimental high energy physics group, NTUHEP, in the Department of Physics has joined the
international experiment, Belle, at KEK, Japan for more than fifteen years. This experiment made many
important discoveries related to the fundamental phenomenon on charge-parity violations between particles
and anti-particles. The NTUHEP team played an important role in most of these observations. One thing
worth mentioning is on the observation of rare baryonic B decays. Prof. H.Y. Chang pointed this out in his
opening speech at The Seventh Particle Physics Phenomenology Workshop that Taiwan is taking the leading
role in the study of baryonic B decays. Renowned Prof.s in Taiwan like W. S. Hou, C. Q. Geng, K. C. Yang, C.
K. Chua and H. Y. Cheng have published more than 20 journal papers in this field since 2000. It is practically
the dominant force in this research area. On the experimental side, almost all of the newly discovered modes
in the rare baryonic B decays are carried out by the NTUHEP team.
Prof. Min-Zu Wang (王名儒) Department of PhysicsThe Fruitful Achievements in Rare Baryonic B Meson Decays by the NTUHEP Group at the Belle B-factory
▲Fig.1 The energy and mass spectra for B+ → proton Lambdabar π+ π-. From the first two spectra one can separate B signal from background. From the π+ π-. mass spectrum, one can tell the decay is genuine 4-body or 3-body decays with intermediate resonances likeρ or f0.
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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Prof. M. Z. Wang was recommended by Prof. W. S. Hou to search for the rare baryonic decays of
B mesons in 2001 with the hope of observing unexpected large CP asymmetries in these rare decays.
The biggest challenge of this kind of observation is to fish out a few signal events in a huge amount of
background of the size of a hundred million. First results on two-body modes were reported in the Lepton-
Photon conferences (2001), and published in Phys.Rev.D. The study of three-body decay modes led to a
discovery of B+ to proton anti-proton K+, a (first ever) new type of rare B decays and published in Phys.Rev.
Lett. (2002). Following the same analysis procedure, our team subsequently observed many similar decay
modes/interesting phenomena. So far, we are 100% responsible for all studies in this field inside Belle.
NTU members become the corresponding authors or 1st authors for 7 Phys.Rev.Lett. papers, 6 Phys.Rev.D
papers, and 2 Phys. Lett.B papers till 2009. On the average, these baryonic B decay papers account for 4%
to 5% of the total Belle publication. This is quite an achievement which is almost too good to be true.
There are many important phenomena being found in the baryonic B decays. The peaking behavior in
the mass spectrum near the threshold of the baryon-antibaryon pair is quite unexpected. It causes a lot of
theoretical speculations such as a glue-ball bound state formed by gluons, a baryonium bound state of the
baryon-antibaron pair, or just a fragmentation effect. From the study of the polar angle distribution of the
proton in the proton anti-proton system of B+ → proton anti-proton K+, we found a large forward-backward
asymmetry. It is against the theoretical prediction based on a short-distance b to s weak decay picture. In the
paper recently published in Phys. Rev. Lett., we found that for the decay B0 → proton anti-proton K*0, the
K*0 meson is almost 100% longitudinally polarized. This is quite interesting and a bit unexpected. In a Phys.
Rev.D long paper published in 2009, we observed quite different decay rates for B to Lambda Lambdabar h
and B to proton anti-proton h where h stands for a light meson. This may reveal that different diquarks play
an important role in the underlying dynamics. Another important finding in 2009 was the first observation of
baryonic 4-body decay of B mesons, namely B+ → proton Lambdabar π+ π-. The peaking feature in the
mass spectrum near the threshold of the baryon-antibaryon pair is still held for this 4-body decay mode.
Figure 1 shows the observed energy and mass spectra published in Phys. Rev. D80, 111103, 2009. In sum, it
is indeed very exciting and fruitful after the first rare baryonic B decay has been observed. This initiates good
interactions and developments in both the experimental and theoretical communities in Taiwan.
Currently there is a plan to upgrade the Belle detector, shown in Fig.2, to cope with the accelerator
upgrade into an unprecedented high luminosity device. We are actively involved in the central drift chamber
and endcap calorimeter tasks. The tentative schedule is to resume running in 2014. We are looking forward
to this upgrade and are convinced that this new machine will bring more surprises in the study of rare
baryonic B decays. ▓
// Research Highlights31
Having served as the Chief Investigator of the NSC-funded “Priority Typhoon Research Project" from
2002-2008, Prof. Chun-Chieh Wu has been playing active roles in both domestic and international tropical
cyclone (typhoon) research programs. His recent work has received high recognition from the international
community. The following are the highlights of Prof. Wu's research achievements and contributions in recent
years.
1. The dynamics of typhoon-terrain interaction: To Characterize the monsoon and terrain modes for typhoon-
induced circulation, and identify the physical mechanisms (channel effect) for terrain-induced looping
motion.
2. The dynamics of typhoon intensity change: To highlight how the moist processes enhance the potential
vorticity structure and support the eyewall evolution, thus providing new insights into the moist eyewall
physics.
3. The dynamics of typhoon-ocean interaction: To investigate the impact of upper ocean thermal structure on
the TC intensity by identifying the insulating effect of warm ocean eddy.
4. Numerical simulation and data assimilation of typhoons: To develop a new scheme to improve typhoon
initialization based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter, with the capacity to integrate the dropwindsonde data
Prof. Chun-Chieh Wu (吳俊傑) Department of Atmospheric SciencesTargeted Observation, Data Assimilation, and Tropical Cyclone Dynamics and Predictability
Fig.1 Dynamics of typhoon eyewall evolution in a high-resolution numerical simulation (From Wu et al. 2009a).
Fig.2 ADSSV patterns for targeted observation (Wu et al. 2009b)Fig.3 The logo of the special collection in MWR (from Wu et al. 2009c)
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
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729 651750
857 872
2005 2006 2007 2008 20090
200400600800
1000
YEAR
Publications in SCI and SSCI Journals
Num
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ions
obtained from aircraft observations.
5. Potential vorticity diagnostics of typhoons: To understand the controlling factors affecting the motion of
typhoons, including new interpretation of the binary interaction (Fujiwaha effect).
6. Targeted observations in DOTSTAR (Dropsonde Observation for Typhoon Surveillance near the TAiwan
Region) and targeted observation research.
Since 2003, 45 DOTSTAR targeted observation missions have been successfully conducted for 35
typhoons, with 239 flight hours and 751 dropsondes released. The overall robust statistics with a 20%
improvement in numerical models has been demonstrated.
DOTSTAR is highly recommended and thus has been included into the international THORPEX/PARC
initiative under the World Meteorological Organization. In Collaboration with the Japanese program, Typhoon
Hunting 2008 (TH08) and the US program, “Tropical Cyclone Structure 2008 (TCS-08)", the joint program
marks the first time that four airplanes (two jets for surveillance, and a P-3 and a C-130 for reconnaissance)
are used to observe typhoons in the western North Pacific. The unprecedented data collected are valuable
for probing into the physics and dynamics of the genesis, structure change, recurvature, extra-tropical
transition, targeting observation, and predictability of tropical cyclones. The DOTSTAR and T-PARC
programs were filmed in an one-hour scientific documentary by the National Geographic, and has been aired
over 135 countries since June 2009.
The American Meteorological Society, a Monthly Weather Review (MWR) journal, published a theme
issue on the “Targeted Observaton and Data Assimilation for Improving Tropical Cyclone Predictability",
which is headed by Prof. Wu. ▓
Research Performance, College of Science
Scholarly Exchange
34
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
▌Visiting Scholars
Department Name InstitutionDepartment of Mathematics Tai-Peng Tsai(蔡岱朋) University of British Columbia, Canada
Quo-Shin Chi(齊國新) Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.A.
Claude Tardif Royal Military College of Canada, Canada
Peng Lu(呂鵬) University of Oregon, U.S.A.
Pei-Yu Tsai(蔡沛羽) Harvard University, U.S.A.
Wu-Yi Hsiang(項武義) University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
Ye-Kai Wang(王業凱) Columbia University, U.S.A.
Ching-Jui Lai(賴青瑞) University of Utah, U.S.A.
Shin-Yao Jow(卓士堯) University of Michigan, U.S.A.
Shihshu Walter Wei(魏詩曙) The University of Oklahoma, U.S.A.
Wen-Wei Li(李文威) Université Paris 7, France
Tsao-Hsien Chen(陳朝銑) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
Chang-Qing Hu(胡長青) Soochow University, China
Theodore Kolokolnikov Dalhousie University, Canada, Canada
Zu-Guang Bian Zhejiang University, China
Horng-Tzer Yau Harvard University, U.S.A.
Alain Perronnet Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), France
Department of Physics Tak-San Ho(何德生) Princeton University, U.S.A.
Dimtry Telnov St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Albert Fert Physics at Université Paris-Sud, France
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji École Normale Supérieure, France
Anders Sandvik Department of Physics, Boston University, U.S.A.
Oh Choo Hiap Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Cecil Laughlin University of Nottingham, U.K.
Marcelo Ciappina Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Singapore
Department of Chemistry Nishihara Okayama University, Japan
Eiichi Negishi Chemistry Department, Purdue University, U.S.A.
Department of Geosciences George Burr Department of Physics, The University of Arizona, U.S.A.
Galip Yuce Department of Geological Engineering, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Turkey
Kwan-Nang Pang(彭君能) The University of Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong)
Jiangbo Lan(藍江波) Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Michael Paul Searle Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, U.K.
謝烈文 Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Qiang Wang(王強) Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Xi-Rong, Liang(梁細榮) MC-ICPMS Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochronology and Geochemistry, CAS, China
Department of Geography Jack F.Williams Department. of Geography, Michigan State University, U.S.A.
For the past years, the departments of CoS have hosted numerous scholars from abroad, the chart below displays those who visited our departments for more than one month.
// Scholarly Exchange35
Asst. Prof. Shi-Wei Chu (朱士維) Department of Physics
Under the faculty exchange program between
NTU and the University of Tübingen (UoT), I visited
Prof Alfred Meixner's lab for two months in the
summer of 2009. Prof Meixner is the chair of the
Department of Physical Chemistry in UoT. Tübingen
is one of the oldest university town in Germany,
with 1/3 of its population tightly connected with the
university and more-than-300-years-old university
buildings scattered all over the small town.
The collaborated research topic is related
to nanooptics, of which Prof Meixner is one of
the leading scientists in the world. Two-months
is actually a rather limited period for scientific
exploration, but it is enough to experience (partially)
their lifestyle inside/outside the lab. Rather than
discussing scientific issues, I would like to focus
more on a comparison of lifestyle between German
researchers and us.
First of all, the ampleness of space and time in
Germany forms a sharp contrast to the research
environment in Taiwan. Prof Meixner's lab occupies
the whole 10th floor of the Physical Chemistry
building (> 600 m2). Not only do all 20 graduate
students have their own seats, but also a small
lounge corner provides relaxation and discussion.
The ampleness of time is even more critical for high-
quality research. In Taiwan, researchers are always
Visits Abroad
Visiting Tubingen Universityrushing to meetings, satisfying budget requirements,
and so forth. But the atmosphere in Tübingen
provides ample time for experimental design and
discussion, and in turn actually generates better
outcome. I guess the pressing atmosphere in Taiwan
might be induced by the overwhelming number
of students and omnipresence of SCI-counting
mechanism. When a young researcher is frequently
required to prove him/herself by publications, it
is difficult to ask our new faculties to delve into
challenging areas.
In addition, it is interesting to notice that
practically everyone left the lab around 5 pm, and
hardly anyone stays after 6 pm. Although some of
our colleagues may be proud of the exceptionally
long working hours in Taiwan, the tradeoff of long
working hours for efficiency is the result. As a result
of pressure from job competition and long working
hours, it will be very difficult for our students or
faculties to make long-term career planning.
Another interesting point is the motivation
to pursue higher education. More than 90% of
students in chemistry in Germany will choose to
enter PhD programs to find good jobs easily. Such
effect of diminishing marginal utility of value of
post-graduate degrees is familiar in Taiwan. But in
Germany, the vocational education system is well-
36
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
supported, and various technical jobs are reserved
for those graduates from vocational colleges, not
for university students. Many research labs in
Germany, for example, hire full-time lab managers
or technical staffs with vocational degrees. On the
other hand, university graduates are expected to join
the management or R&D teams, so a PhD degree
is beneficial in job competition. Back in Taiwan, a
master's degree student might apply for a janitor's
position, resulting in the confusion of value and the
waste of human capital.
Speaking of technical staff, I suggest that
we should place more attention/investment on
basic technical support, instead of purely on
instrumentation. Efficient technical support is often
more vital for advanced experiments. As a final
remark, I would like to thank College of Science
at NTU for providing the valuable opportunity to
experience the beautiful Tübingen in summer. The
glory of the university town is not coming from the
brand new buildings, but from the well-preserved
natural and historic sites. Perhaps we should think
twice when designing campus landscape. After all,
one of the reasons that Einstein chose to stay in
Princeton is its Black-Forest-resembling scenery. ■
// Scholarly Exchange37
Visiting University of Heidelberg
Prof. Ying-Chih Lin (林英智) Department of Chemistry
On May 5 2009 I arrived at Heidelberg via
Frankfurt. The University of Heidelberg, one of the
oldest universities in the world, is located at an
historical old town and the university developed
a new campus on the other side of the city. Most
science and engineering departments are now
located in this newly developed area. I took a bus to
the new campus to meet with Prof. Peter Hofmann,
who is my host for lunch. On the second day, one
staff member helped me to set up the internet
connection.
The chemistry department of the University of
Heidelberg is divided into two subdivisions: Organic
and Inorganic, each with three chair professors and
other junior faculty members. I talked with Prof.
Hofmann about his research. He is enthusiastic
about his recent progress particularly on the
hydroformylation. He developed several new ligands
for the Rh system to improve the linear/branch ratio
of the hydroformylation products. The bulky bidentate
[(t-Bu)2P]2CH2 ligand, of which the bite angle
along with the bulk of the t-Bu group play important
role in exposing metal coordination site, greatly
improved the linear/branch ratio. One impressive
project integrating many groups was set up in
2002. The University started a special multiparty
research activity (Sonderforschungsbereich SFB
623: Molecular Catalysts: Structure and Functional
Design) as a new long-term collaborative research
project. A total of 18 research groups from the
Institutes of Inorganic, Organic and Physical
Chemistry, the Department of Pharmacy, the
Department of Technical Chemistry and the Centre
of Interdisciplinary Scientific Computing were
integrated in the new Collaborative Project. The most
important purpose is to coordinate the experimental
and theoretical expertise of all involved to achieve a
profound basic understanding of catalytic processes
38
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
at the molecular and atomic level. The availability
of modern high-tech equipment gave access to
high-throughput screening and parallel synthesis
methodology for molecular catalysis research. My
host contributes two research projects in the field
of homogenous, organometallic catalysis and he
served as the Speaker of the organization.
I also met with Prof. Hashmi, the world famous
scientist on gold catalyzed reaction. He focused
his interest in the transition metal catalysis,
especially gold-catalyzed C-C and C-heteroatom
bond formation, (methodologies, mechanisms
and enantioselective catalysis). I also talked with
Prof. Comba, an Inorganic chair professor. He is
interested in classical transition metal coordination
chemistry as well as theoretical inorganic chemistry
and molecular modeling. The basis of his project
is to distort the coordination geometries to yield
compounds with specific electronic properties and
reactivities. Prof. Gade, a chair professor, has
focused the research on the catalysis using unusual
inorganic and organometallic system. He developed
the dendrimer system of asymmetric chiral ligand
using propylene diamine (NH2CH2CH2CH2NH2) for
constructing a huge dendrimer molecule and tested
it on asymmetric catalysis.
The Department of Chemistry and The
Instrumentation Center recently purchased an
ultrahigh field 800 MHz NMR instrument from
the Bruker Company located at Karlsruhe, a
small town near Heidelberg. I was invited to visit
the production site for our new 800 MHz NMR
instrument. The production plant is well equipped
with various apparatus. The square shaped
superconductive wire composed of numerous
very tiny, nano scale thin wires wrapped around a
circular cone and was heated to high temperature,
so that the superconductivity is achieved at 4K. The
infrastructure of the whole plant displays clearly
the strategy of company's direction. The integrity
of research and industrial production in a high-
tech company is impressive. Because of high-
tech research involved in the production of a high
field magnet, the plant hired only a few capable
production workers other than many research
scientists and engineers.
Heidelberg, built along the magnificent Neckar
river, is an old historical site of Europe with many
cultures and academic background. Till now it is
still a nice university town with only about less
than 80,000 people. The Schloss (Castle) is one
of the oldest chronological buildings of the city
and was only partly damaged during the war.
The largest wooden brewing container in the
world holding more than 10,000L of wine is well-
preserved in the Castle. The Deutsche Apothek
museum (pharmacy museum) inside the castle
is extraordinary, containing a unique collection of
pharmacist's dispensing equipment, containers and
various medicaments, which recorded the history of
development of chemistry in this county showing the
very strong chemistry background of Germany. The
world famous philosopher's walk is located at the
hillside across the rive looking back to the castle and
old town. A short climb to the hillside would enable
one to enjoy the famous panorama outlook over the
city and the Castle.
Overall, I rate the exchange program highly
profitable for exchanging research ideas on research
projects. Scientists at the University of Heidelberg
seem to have high interest in sending students to
Taiwan for getting exposure to our research activity
and Chinese culture.■
// Scholarly Exchange39
Asst. Prof. Ya-Hsuan Liou (劉雅瑄) Department of Geosciences
Visiting University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
In February 2009, I visited a fabulous lab, Prof.
Galen D. Stucky's lab, at University of California,
Santa Barbara (UCSB) for 11 months under support
of Human Resource Development Program of
National Taiwan University. Prof. Stucky obtained
his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from R.
E. Rundle at Iowa State University in 1962, with a
thesis on the synthesis, NMR, single-crystal growth,
and structural characterization of the Grignard
reagent. After a non-academic interlude at Sandia
National Laboratory and DuPont Central Research
and Development from 1980 to 1985, he joined the
faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara,
where he is now Professor in the Department of
Chemistry & Biochemistry (College of Letters and
Science), Professor in the Materials Department
(College of Engineering), and a member of the
Interdepartmental Program in Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology. Since Prof. Stucky is an expert
on the syntheses of Triblock Copolymer Mesoporous
Silica, my research is related to this topic.
It is interesting to notice that the famous invention
of mesoporous by Prof Stucky's lab, SBA-15, comes
from the “Santa Barbara Airport" (15 means the
15th test of the prescription). Santa Barbara is at a
two-hour drive north from Los Angeles or a short hop
from any corner of the world via the Santa Barbara
airport. Santa Barbara's harbor is home to the world
famous Stearns Wharf. UCSB is located in this
nice and beautiful city. However, I eye-witnessed
40
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
a terrific fire on May 5th named “Jesusita Fire".
8,733 acres burned and almost all UCSB students
have been evacuated from the campus. Fortunately,
the atmosphere in the UCSB campus was calm
with complete evacuation plan according to the
rehearsals performed every season. I think serious
rehearsals should be carried out in Taiwan to prevent
the experimental accident in the lab or on campus.
The ampleness of space and time in UCSB
make a sharp contrast to the research environment
in Taiwan. Prof Stucky's lab spreads out on the 3rd
floor of Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
Twelve graduate students and 4 research associates
come from different places and countries such
as Germany, China, Korea, Mexico, etc. besides
the US. His lab is greatly internationalized with a
meeting every week and provides abundant time
for experimental design and discussion. In addition,
everyone left the lab in weekends to bask in the sun
and the beautiful coast. They work hard during the
week and totally release their pressure during the
weekend. In Taiwan, we are always immersed in an
atmosphere with pressure and long working hours. It
might misguide our students to believe in the value
of long working hours, rather than high efficiency.
As a final remark, this visiting program is under
support of Human Resource Development Program
of National Taiwan University. I would like to express
my appreciation to our university for providing this
valuable opportunity to learn and to have oversea
experiences during my teaching career.■
41
Teaching and Learning
42
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
MERIT Volunteers Conducting Various Exchanges, Researches and Inquires in The Republic of the Marshall Islands
| Asst. Prof. Crison Chien (簡旭伸)Department of Geography
In the summer of 2009, a group of six students
from Taiwan flew to the Marshall Islands for a series
of exchanges with local students. The group was
supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and put
together under the direction of Dr. Shiuh-Shen Chien
from the Department of Geography, Dr. Pohsiung of
the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and Dr.
Yuanchao Tung of the Department of Anthropology
at National Taiwan University.
In the spirit of volunteerism, this group undertook
to demonstrate the role that youth ambassadors
can play. Through a mutual sharing of knowledge,
we aimed to help Marshallese students gain a fuller
understanding of Taiwan while in return, we obtained
a better knowledge of the Marshall Islands that they
could take back and share with Taiwan society.
In this spirit, a series of activities were designed
for Marshallese students that would introduce them
to Taiwan at the same time as helping them to see
the Marshall Islands from different perspectives. This
was by no means an easy task, a difficulty that was
compounded by the fact that English was to be the
language of interaction. But over the course of the
two months that we had to prepare, we were able
to get ourselves ready for the task by helping each
other and through constant communication.
// Teaching and Learning43
In mid-July, the MERIT team set off for the
Marshall Islands with high hopes for the mission.
With the assistance of Taiwan´s ambassador
to the country, we were able to rapidly familiarize
ourselves with the environment. The warm welcome
that we received from students there on our first
meeting made us look forward with anticipation
to the activities we had prepared. These included
teaching students how to use genealogical software
and Google Earth so that they could digitally plot
their kinship trees and living environments, and
comparing the spatial arrangement of homes and
communities in our two countries. There were also
activities centered on clothing, cuisine, songs and
dances, and toys. These included organizing a
small costume party that focused on the different
types of school uniforms students wore in Taiwan
and the Marshall Islands. A performance of Taiwan's
aboriginal songs got a huge applause from students
who then taught us how to play the Hawaiian ukulele
and to perform a local fishing dance and a banana
dance.
We can only begin to express the rewards that we
took away from this program. Now, we look forward
to being able to incorporate some of the knowledge
we gained through this exchange in the form of a
website and further research for use by the people
of Taiwan and the Marshall Islands. The MERIT
members also have given various kinds of exhibition
and presentation after coming back to Taiwan,
including the Conference with other five groups
from the Youth Ambassador Program in Taipei
Guest House on 8th October 2009, and an oral
presentation with an one-week poster presentation
in March 3-5 in the NTU Main Library. When local
knowledge becomes common information to be
shared among others, then we can truly say that we
are living in a global village.■
44
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Joint Field Course on Geomorphology and Neotectonics in Taiwan
| Yen-Sheng Lin (林晏陞) Department of Geoseiences
Located on the boundary between Philippine
Sea plate and Eurasian plate, the orogeny in Taiwan
is ongoing like a raging fire. The Luzon volcanic
arc obliquely collides with the Eurasian continental
margin at a rate of 7~8 cm/yr. Because of the rapid
plate convergence rate and high denudation, Taiwan
provides a unique window for geologists in the world
to study neotectonics and tectonogeomorphology.
In January 2010, a 15-day cooperative field class
between Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
(LMU Munich) and the Geosciences Department
of National Taiwan University (NTU) was held and
led jointly by Prof. Petra Veselá (LMU) and Prof. J.
Bruce H. Shyu (NTU) took place in Taiwan.
The lecture started with two days of indoor
GIS mapping training at NTU. The students who
participated learned to identify the characteristics of
different structures like folds, faults, river terraces,
or landslides on a digital map. Besides mapping and
interpreting the geomorphic features, they also need
to discuss priorities during field work that follows.
The Longitudinal Valley in eastern Taiwan is
considered to be where the arc-continent collision
occurred. Our study therefore focuses on the
southernmost part, namely in Luyeh and Peinan
in this case. The fluvial terraces there were widely
distributed in seven steps, and some abnormal
shapes reveal previous tectonic activities. The
fracture or deformation on constructions such as
bridges and levees also preserve the coseismic
offset during the last big historical earthquake.
According to maps, field observations and
// Teaching and Learning45
measurements, several anticlines, synclines and
bended surfaces indicate that there are two thrust
faults aligned from north to south. While vertical
movements dominate in western faults, lateral strike
slips predominate in other areas.
After detailed surveys and discussions every
day, participants have improved their ability to
build a much more reasonable tectonic model by
those “indirect" surface evidences. Since the
exposures of fault planes are absent or not obvious
sometimes, there could be a high active potential
within. Learning how to judge regarding different
geomorphic characteristics would be important,
especially in densely populated areas in Taiwan.
The Longitudinal Valley in eastern Taiwan is
considered to be where the arc-continent collision
occurred. Our study therefore focuses on the
southernmost part, namely in Luyeh and Peinan
in this case. The fluvial terraces there were widely
distributed in seven steps, and some abnormal
shapes reveal previous tectonic activities. The
fracture or deformation on constructions such as
bridges and levees also preserve the coseismic
offset during the last big historical earthquake.
According to maps, field observations and
measurements, several anticlines, synclines and
bended surfaces indicate that there are two thrust
faults aligned from north to south. While vertical
movements dominate in western faults, lateral strike
slips predominate in other areas.
After detailed surveys and discussions every
day, participants have improved their ability to
build a much more reasonable tectonic model by
those “indirect" surface evidences. Since the
exposures of fault planes are absent or not obvious
sometimes, there could be a high active potential
within. Learning how to judge regarding different
geomorphic characteristics would be important,
especially in densely populated areas in Taiwan.■
46
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Mathematical science plays an important role in
today's international technological developments
and in the competitiveness of scientific talents.
Moreover, the application of math in technologies
which affect peoples' daily lives has also become
increasingly widespread. In order to cope with the
challenges of our future, young students should
have a good math education. The international
society has long advocated that students should be
given stimulus to cultivate their scientific research
and innovation ability at an early age. As a result,
many awards have been set up to encourage
young students to pursue innovative research. For
instance, in the United States, the Intel Science
Talent Search (formerly known as The Siemens
Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and
Technology) is not just an ordinary math competition,
but rather emphasizes the importance of innovation
and realization. It spurs the enthusiasm of American
high school and college students to pursue scientific
research. Many award winners later became famous
scientists. Statistics have shown that among the
winners of the Westinghouse Competition, five later
won the Nobel Prize in Science, whereas twenty
seven became members of the American Academy
of Science.
In view of the above, it is important to set up
a math award in Taiwan to help cultivate young
mathematical talents. NTU's Department of
Department of Mathematics Establishes the Shing Tung Yau Award in Math to Cultivate New Generation of Master Mathematicians
// Teaching and Learning47
Mathematics took the initiative to establish the Shing
Tung Yau(丘成桐)Award in Math and invited
distinguished math scholars to serve as judges.
Through special topics research, the Award aims
to enhance the mathematical capability of the new
generation of high school students, to inspire their
interests to explore knowledge and to raise their
academic standards. Academia Sinica academician
Dr. Shing Tung Yau(丘成桐)(chair professor at
Harvard University at present) is a world famous
mathematician and also the first Chinese scholar
to win the Fields Medal. Over the past twenty
years, he has made great contributions to the
mathematical society of Taiwan, and his concern and
dedication are commonly acknowledged. Dr. Yau's
road to success is by far the best example for the
youngsters of Taiwan to follow. As a result, NTU's
newly established Math Award is named after him.
Award applicants must be enrolled in high
schools or junior high schools, and take part in the
competition on a personal basis. They also need to
have a high school or junior high school teacher as
his/her tutor, his/her entry can be a piece of pure
mathematical research, or an integrated study of
mathematical applications in other areas (such as
natural science or finance).
The submitted entry must be an original innovative
work, and not a rehash of known documents, nor can
the submitted entry be one which has won awards in
other math competitions or scientific exhibitions (non
winners are not confined by this rule). There are no
restrictions on the mathematical knowledge or tools
used in the preparation of the submitted entries. The
entries can be written either in Chinese or in English.
All awarded works will be compiled into a book.
The extremely excellent works will be published
in professional journals with the assistance of Dr.
Yau and members of the Yau Award committee. In
addition, the sponsor will assign an advisor to assist
those who study in departments of mathematics or
applied mathematics to participate in the research
programs. And their developments in the future will
also be tracked. They may have the chance to take
some short-term courses in a foreign university or
a research center (e.g. Harvard). Furthermore, Dr.
Yau, the committee and the advisors will be happy to
write recommendation letters for those who plan to
study in Taiwan or abroad. ■
48
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
To meet the needs of international students
at National Taiwan University, the College of
Science offers an international studies course
“Exploring Taiwan--Geographical Environment and
Resources" as one of the courses taught in English.
This course brings in instructors who are the best
in their fields of research, and includes atmospheric
science, geology, marine science; and urban, social
and cultural geography. It gives foreign students
a good background in a wide range of disciplines,
instilling a greater understanding of Taiwan and
enabling them to take advanced courses taught in
Chinese, or partake in research in the future. Offered
for the third time, both foreign and local students
can take the course to fulfill the requirement of the
Taiwan Studies Program. This course is one of the
few English language courses offered in social and
physical science, although English courses are
becoming a major thrust in NTU's effort to attract
more international students. The course instructors
invited by Prof. Nora Chiang, the co-ordinator, are
chosen because of their expertise in their areas
of research. They prepare their lecture topics with
slides of maps, graphs, landscapes of Taiwan, and
documentary films. The course includes a half-day
trip to visit the Weather Bureau and a day-trip to the
outskirts of Taipei.
From 2007-2009, altogether 137 students from 35
nationalities have enrolled in the NTU course entitled
“Exploring Taiwan" during the three years that
the course has been offered at NTU. Students have
enrolled in the course, to date, from the following
countries of origin (listed in no particular order):
Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Thailand, India, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey,
Macedonia, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic,
the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the
United Kingdom, Canada, the U.S.A, Costa Rica,
Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, St. Kitts, Saint
Lucia, Paraguay, Chile, Sao Tome and Principe,
Nigeria, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon
Islands. ▓
Exploring Taiwan --Geographical Environment and Resources
| Prof. Lan-Hung Chiang (姜蘭虹)
Department of Geography
// Teaching and Learning49
Colleges of Science and Life Sciences at National Taiwan University are working with the Ministry of Education to develop interdisciplinary scientific talents through the joint initiation of a “Basic Science Interdisciplinary Training Program". The Program brings together outstanding academic teams from 23 institutes including the Colleges of Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Medicine, to execute two A-level plans to promote interdisciplinary, interdepartmental training and improvement projects for instructional materials for science. Six additional teams will propose 18 B-level sub-projects for nurturing gifted students, thus raising Taiwan's academic competitiveness.
A-level projects are specifically targeted at the development and improvement of interdisciplinary instructional materials in science. Two teams have put forward two sub-projects: (1) combining experts in basic physics, engineering and medicine to develop content including "Engineering/Medicine Interdisciplinary Innovative Instructional Materials for Basic Physics", "Demonstration Experiments" and "Specialized Investigative Experiments"; to promote the development and expansion of interdisciplinary and interdepartmental instructional materials, and to improve interdisciplinary courses for basic physics
and advanced medical physics courses. The second sub-project combines the work of scholars for the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with students coming from interdisciplinary engineering backgrounds to develop future advanced interdisciplinary courses, converging research in bioinformatics and bioengineering.
B-class projects combine the expertise of 20 renowned professors from the Colleges of Engineering, Medicine, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to form six interdepartmental training teams, each dedicated to its own area of expertise. These teams will execute 18 sub-projects, offering learning opportunities in basic science and cutting-edge technology. Participating students will not only receive direct mentoring from the professors, but will also encourage teachers to participate in study groups and seminars, providing opportunities to stimulate new ideas through the interdisciplinary exchange of experience and opinions. The published results of the project's concluding conference will provide opportunities for interdisciplinary and educational exchange, and will serve to optimize the effective implementation of the sub-projects to develop new instructional materials and training skills. For its overall results, the project was recognized with an "Excellence" award.■
Interdisciplinary Science Training Program
50
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
For the purpose of encouraging outstanding faculty members, and recognizing their effort and contribution in the field of education, this university has established the "Outstanding Teaching Faculty Selection and Award Guidelines". Full-time faculty members and project-appointed teaching faculty members of this university who have been teaching at this university for over two years can qualify as candidates. In conducting the award selection process, the university will take into consideration the faculty member’s teaching evaluations, student surveys and other teaching records and achievements.
The awards are classified into two categories: the "Distinguished Teaching" award and the "Outstanding Teaching" award. The annual quotas for Distinguished Teaching awards and Outstanding Teaching awards are 1% and 9%, respectively, of the total full-time faculty members. In addition to being publicly recognized and presented with medals, the award recipients are conferred different monetary awards based on the type of award.
≡Distinguished Teaching Award
Department of Physics Dr. Pei-Ming Ho(賀培銘)Department of Psychology Dr. Keng-Chen Liang(梁庚辰)Department of Atmospheric Sciences Dr. I-I Lin(林依依)
Distinguished/Outstanding Teaching Award for 2008/2009 Academic Year
// Teaching and Learning51
1. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Pao-Ti Chang(張寶棣)2. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Chih-Yu Chao(趙治宇)3. Department of Chemistry ............................Dr. Chao-Tsen Chen(陳昭岑)4. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Chiun-Chuan Chen(陳俊全)5. Department of Chemistry ...........................Dr. Chun-Hsien Chen(陳俊顯)6. Department of Atmospheric Sciences .........Dr. Jen-Ping Chen(陳正平)7. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Jung-Kai Chen(陳榮凱)8. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Chin-Tsang Chiang(江金倉)9. Department of Chemistry ...........................Dr. Sheng-Hsien Chiu(邱勝賢)10. Department of Geosciences ........................Dr. Shen Chuan-Chou(沈川洲)11. Department of Psychology ..........................Dr. Tai-Li Chou(周泰立)12. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Hi-Wei Chu(朱士維)13. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Huah Chu(朱樺)14. Department of Geosciences ........................Dr. Jyr-Ching Hu(胡植慶)15. Department of Geography ...........................Dr. Tsung-Yi Huang(黃宗儀)16. Department of Psychology ..........................Dr. Wen-Sung Lai(賴文崧)17. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Pjek-Hwee Lee(李白飛)18. Department of Chemistry ............................Dr. Man-Kit Leung(梁文傑)19. Department of Geography ...........................Dr. Jiun-Chuan Lin(林俊全)20. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Minn-Tsong Lin(林敏聰)21. Department of Chemistry ............................Dr. Chun-Yi David Lu(陸駿逸)22. Department of Geosciences ........................Dr. Sheng-Rong Song(宋聖榮)23. Department of Oceanography .....................Dr. Chih-Chieh Su(蘇志杰)24. Department of Oceanography .....................Dr. Tswen-Yung Tang(唐存勇)25. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Jenn-Nan Wan (王振男)26. Department of Oceanography .....................Dr. Pei-Ling Wang(王珮玲)27. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Jiun-Huei Proty Wu(吳俊輝)28. Department of Geosciences ........................Dr. Yih-Min Wu(吳逸民)29. Department of Chemistry ............................Dr. Jye-Shane Yang(楊吉水)30. Department of Psychology ..........................Dr. Kai-Ping Yao(姚開屏)
≡Outstanding Teaching Award for 2008/2009
University
52
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
College 1. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Chih-Chung Chang (張志中)2. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Jiunn-Wei Chen (陳俊瑋)3. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Jenq-Wei Chen (陳政維)4. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Chen-Lian Chuang (莊正良)5. Department of Psychology ..........................Dr. Wen-Sung Lai (賴文崧)6. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Ching-The Li (李慶德)7. Department of Mathematics ........................Dr. Shao-Shiung Lin (林紹雄)8. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Jen-Hwa Hsu (許仁華)9. Department of Physics ................................Dr. W-Y. Pauchy Hwang (黃偉彥)10. Department of Chemistry ............................Dr. Jui-Lin She (佘瑞琳)11. Department of Physics ................................Dr. Fu-Goul Yee (易富國)12. Department of Atmospheric Sciences .........Dr. Ching-Chi Wu (吳清吉)
// Teaching and Learning53
// Acdemic Exchange Agreements53
Academic Exchange Agreements
54
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
Inter-College
Inter-Department▌Department of Physics
–Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Japan
–Department of Physics, Osaka University, Japan
▌Department of Chemistry–The Institute de chimie de Rennes of the Université of Rennes 1,
France
–Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kanagawa University,
Japan
–Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore,
Singapore
–Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Science,
Hokkaido University, Japan
–Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan
University, Japan
The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Japan
The Faculty of Science, Okayama University, Japan
Division of Electromagnetic Metrology, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), Korea, and
College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Korea
The School of Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China (Hong Kong)
The Graduate School of Engineering and School of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan
The College of Letters and Science, Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of California, Davis,
U.S.A.
The Graduate School of Science and School of Science, Osaka University, Japan
Institute of Geological Sciences, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam
// Acdemic Exchange Agreements55
▌Department of Geosciences–Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong, China (Hong
Kong)
–Department of Geosciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook,
U.S.A.
–Center for Spatial Information Science, University of Tokyo, Japan
–Institute of Geophysics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology,
Vietnam
▌Department of Geography–Department of Social and Economic Geography, Lund University, Sweden
–Department of Geography and Resource Management, Chinese Univ. of
HK.
▌Department of Atmospheric Sciences–Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Atmospheric
Sciences Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New
York, U.S.A.
–Department of Meteorology, School of Ocean Earth Science Technology,
University of Hawaii, U.S.A.
–International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean Earth Science
Technology, University of Hawaii, U.S.A.
–Joint Center for High-Impact Weather and Climate Research, Seoul
National University, Korea
–Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Japan
▌Graduate Institute of Oceanography–Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Japan
–Research Center for the Natural Sciences, University of Santo Tomas,
Republic of the Philippines
The Frontier Science Symposium is the brainchild of Prof.
M. C. Kang when he was Dean of the College of Science.
The aim of the Symposium is to foster scholarly exchange
between Mainland China and Taiwan, and to encourage
colleagues to present their best and most recent
research and to enhance their résumé through
international collaboration. It started in 1999,
with National Taiwan University and Nanjing
University organizing the symposium in turn.
Joined by National University of Singapore
and National Central University later, the
Symposium is now held in rotation among the
four leading universities in Asia.
The 10th and most recent Frontier Science
Symposium was held by National Central University
on November 17-20, 2009. Topics included Challenges
of Theoretical Sciences, Inspirational Topics on Life
Sciences, and Prominent Advances in Nanotechnology.
The upcoming 11th Frontier Science Symposium will be
held in Nanjing University on November 13-18, 2010. Subjects will include Nanotechnology, Life Sciences,
Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Environmental Sciences, and Astronomy and Physics. ▓
The Frontier Science Symposium
56
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
57
New Buildings and Facilities
8 New Building andFacilities
58
Chemistry Department Building Officially Opened for Use
The second phase of the construction project for
the new chemistry research building, Tzi-Shueh Hall
(積學館)was completed on the 12th of November,
2009. In the opening ceremony, President Si-Chen
Lee(李嗣涔), former President of Academia
Sinica's Dr. Yuan-Tseh Lee(李遠哲), Chairman of
TSMC Dr. Morris Chang(張忠謀), Chairman of the
TSMC Cultural and Educational Foundation Dr. F.C.
Tseng(曾繁城), Chairman of TASCO Chemical
Corporation Mr. Cheng-Ching Wu(吳澄清),
Chairman of San-Fu Chemical Ltd Mr. Su-Ming
Cheng(張純明), and former President of NTU Dr.
Wei-Chao Chen(陳維昭)all attended with many
other dignitaries to extend their congratulations.
The new chemical research building, Tzi-Shueh
Hall(積學館) is situated beside the Drunken
Moon Lake, and was rebuilt over the site of the old
chemistry building, the chemistry center building,
and the Isotope building. It now stands as a research
building comprised of eight stories above ground and
one basement. The construction of the new chemical
research building is divided into two phases. The
first phase (Building A) has been completed in June
2005 and opened for use. The second phase's
(Building B, the Tzi-Shueh Hall) fund raising was
aided by Academia Sinica´s former president Dr.
Yuan-Tseh Lee(李遠哲)who invited TSMC and
other Department of Chemistry alumni to join the
// New Buildings and Facilities59
project and bring it to fruition. This is the first case in
National Taiwan University in which a new building
was completed through the joint efforts of alumni and
industrial members.
The funding of the construction of the new
Tzi-Shueh Hall(積學館)came partly from the
University, and the rest was donated by TSMC (120
million N.T.), Taiwan Tasco Chemical Corporation
and China Fongda Group (each donated 50 million
N.T.) and over 100 Department of Chemistry
alumni. The naming of the new building was to
commemorate the generous donation of TSMC, so
“Tzi" was taken from the Chinese name of TSMC,
whereas “Shueh" was taken from the Department
of Chemistry, so the new building became “Tzi-
Shueh" Hall. The Heart of Literary Dragon(文心
雕龍)has a saying: “Accumulation of knowledge
(Tzi-Shueh´s meaning in Chinese) is to prepare
for a true genius, and contemplation of reasons is to
enrich a talent." This saying reflects the profound
significance of the “Tzi-Shueh" Hall.
In his speech delivery President Si-Chen Lee(李
嗣涔)said: “The Chemistry department of NTU has
stellar performance in both teaching and research. It
not only is a paragon for other departments to follow,
but has cultivated many outstanding research fellows
and received broad international recognition. With
the opening of the new chemical research building,
the Chemistry Department will be able to recruit
more good quality faculty, to guide more students
and to engage in more advanced research to serve
our society and mankind. This kind of development
will raise the reputation of the Department, and
accomplish more cutting-edge research, so that the
Department will become one of the important center
for chemical research in the world.■
60
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
In June of 1900, President Yuan Tseh Lee of
the Academia Sinica (AS) and President Wei-
Jao Chen of the National Taiwan University (NTU)
signed an agreement for the AS providing the budge
to construct the Astronomy-Mathematics Building
on the NTU Campus. The new building is for the
cooperation between the Department of Mathematics
of NTU, the Institute of Mathematics of AS, the
Institute of Astrophysics of NTU and the Institute of
Astrophysics of AS. This is a 14-floor building, with
initial budge 800 million NTD and final cost 1400
million NTD. By now, the two institutes of AS have
moved into the building, and the two institutes of
NTU are planning to move into during the summer of
2010.
The Astronomy-Mathematics Building (ASMAB)
is besides the Condensed Matter Science and
Physics Building. Between these two buildings is
the Dorm 13, which is to be reformed to house the
National Center for Theoretical Sciences at Taipei
and the Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle
Astrophysics. Besides these two centers, the Taida
Institute for Mathematical Sciences, houses at the
New Mathematics Building, is established to carry
out interdisciplinary research on mathematical
sciences. These, together with the Chemistry
Building, all surround the Drunken-Moon Lake. By
now, many active groups of theoretical scientists
meet together at this part of Taiwan. It becomes an
important Theoretical Science Park of Taiwan.
In the first floor of the ASMAB, there is
an international conference hall which can
accommodate 204 persons. The Mathematics
Library is on the second and the third floors. It
includes mathematics books and journals of the two
mathematics units. By now, it is the most complete
mathematics library in Taiwan. Besides, there are
various sized classrooms in the first, second and
third floors. The office spaces for Mathematics of
NTU, Mathematics of AS, Astrophysics of NTU and
Astrophysics are on Floors 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 and 10-
14, respectively. There is a Computational Science
Center in the ninth floor, which is for the cooperation
between the computational peoples of Mathematics
of NTU and two Institutes of Astrophysics. There are
also some laboratories in the underground floors.
We strongly believe that after gathering so many
theoretical scientists and so much resource around
the Drunken-Moon Lake, this area will very soon
develop into a science park of Taiwan.■
Astronomy-Mathematics Building
// New Buildings and Facilities61
Chemistry Department recently purchased an
ultrahigh field 800 MHz NMR instrument from the
Bruker Company, with funding from the University,
National Science Council and the Instrumentation
Center. This facility would provide researchers with
the opportunity to collect NMR data at very high
field. The 800 MHz high-field NMR spectrometer
is furnished with a cyroprobe and a CP/MAS solid
probe.
The state-of-the-art spectrometer is equipped
with an 18.8 Tesla, a 52 mm standard bore sized
magnet. Unlike conventional cryostats, the helium
vessel contains liquid helium at two different
temperatures, an upper section at 4.2K and a lower
section at around 2K, separated by a thermal barrier.
The reduced temperature is achieved by a Joule-
Thompson (J-T) cooling unit operating at a reduced
pressure. The superconducting wire technology
plus magnet design enable stable and compact 800
MHz NMR magnets with suppression of external
magnetic field disturbances. The accessories of
this spectrometer include: A 5mm Triple-Resonance
Inverse CryoProbe, TCI, (1H, 13C, 15N) equipped
with Z-gradients and with an Automatic Tuning and
Matching (ATM), used mainly for protein studies. A
5mm Broadband probe (1H/31P-15N) equipped with
Z-gradient for general multinuclear measurements.
High speed Magic Angle Spinning probes for Hetero-
nuclear Solid State NMR. The spectrometer can
perform a wide range of modern gradient-selected
experiments, including automatic deuterium gradient
shimming, diffusion studies etc.
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy are
now used to study the structure of molecules, the
interaction of various molecules, kinetics or dynamics
of molecules, and the composition of mixtures of
biological or synthetic solutions or composites. The
800 MHz console system provides state-of-the-art
high resolution experiments for versatile samples
from a small organic molecule or metabolite, to a
mid-sized peptide or natural product, all the way up
to proteins of several tens of kDa. This four-channel
instrument is to be used mainly for specialized
research and multidimensional, including 3D and 4D,
NMR work.
Hetero-nuclear solid state NMR is increasingly
used to reveal structural information on a variety of
materials by the use of high magic-angle-spinning
speeds (35 kHz) CP/MAS probes. NMR correlations
of 27Al, 23Na, 17O, 31P, 29Si, 13C, 15N indicate
spatial proximity and allow distance measurements
that provide structural information across a wide
range of materials such as glasses, ceramics,
mesoporous materials, polymers, as well as organic
and biological samples.■
800 MHz High-Field NMR Spectrometer
62
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
NTU Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics
NTU launched the university-level Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (LeCosPA http://
lecospa.ntu.edu.tw) in November 2007, which is funded by the generous donation of the co-founder and
CEO of the Quanta Computers Inc., Mr. Chee-Chun Leung. Within 2.5 years, LeCosPA has grown rapidly.
Some of its new developments in 2009 are summarized as follows:
•ResearchActivitiesThe major experimental research activities led by
the Fellows of the LeCosPA Center include
1. NTU Array in Nevada, which measures the
polarizations and the SZ effect of the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) fluctuations, led
by Prof. Tzihong Chiueh.
2. Infrared Telescope TELIS in Tibet, which will
survey the galactic infrared signals in the
northern hemisphere from Tibet with very clean
air and minimal light pollution, led by Prof. Wei-
Hsin Sun.
•OrganizationLeCosPA has by now recruited near 30 Fellows,
4 administrative staff and more than 40 students.
About 1/3 of the Fellows are NTU faculties who
are specialized in the field, another 1/3 are experts
recruited from other universities and the Academia
Sinica. The last 1/3 are full-time Junior Fellows
recruited from around the world. With competitive
salaries and fringe benefits, it manages to have
recruited junior members and long-term visitors from
around the world, including U.S., Canada, Europe
and Australia.
// New Buildings and Facilities63
3. NuTel neutrino telescope led by Prof. Minzu
Wang, the NTU team now collaborates with the
particle astrophysics group at the High Energy
Physics Institute in Beijing to measure cosmic
ray showers at high altitude in Tibet.
4. ANITA, a NASA balloon-borne ultra-high
energy cosmic neutrino detector and a
Taiwan-U.S.-U.K. collaboration, has completed
two flights in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 and
published numerous results in leading journals
and is currently preparing its 3rd flight in 2011.
5. ARA, a Taiwan-Belgium-Japan-U.K.-U.S.
collaboration that searches for ultra-high
energy cosmic neutrino with ground-based
antenna array in the South Pole. Prof. Pisin
Chen, Director of LeCos, is the International
Co-spokesperson of ARA. This project which
starts in 2010, has received major funding
from NSF of the U.S. and NSC of Taiwan, and
aims at `mass production' of GZK cosmic
neutrinos. The project starts in 2010.
6. UFFO Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) Satellite
Telescope, a Taiwan-Denmark-Korea-U.
S. collaboration, to be launched by Russian
satellite in 2011. UFFO employs the state-of-
the-art micro electrical and mechanical system
(MEMS) for its zoom lens. This allows UFFO
to turn to the GRB prompt signal, which lasts
for only ~ 1 sec, within ~ 1 msec. In contrast,
it takes ~ 1 minute for the SWIFT, the current
leading GRB telescope, to turn to the event.
The advantage of UFFO is clear.
Theoretical activities in LeCosPA are conducted
through Working Groups. There are 5 WGs: the
Dark Energy WG led by Je-An Gu, the Dark Matter
WG led by Hui-Tzu Tu, the String Cosmology Group
led by Debaprasad Maity, the Cosmic Neutrino WG
led by Guey-Lin Lin and the Large Scale Structure
WG led by Keiichi Umetsu. It is hoped that major
discoveries may emerge from these activities in the
near future.
•MemorandumofUnderstanding(MOU) for Collaboration
In order to foster LeCosPA's role as a world-class
research center, it is essential that it develops close
connections with other world's leading institutions
in cosmology. So far it has signed three MOUs with
the 4th under negotiation. These `sister institutions'
are:
1. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and
Cosmology (KIPAC), Stanford University (MOU
signed in 2009)
2. Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of
the Universe (IPMU), University of Tokyo (MOU
signed in 2009)
3. International Center for Relativistic
Astrophysics Network (ICRANet), Pescara,
Italy(MOU signed in 2009)
4. Beecraft Institute for Particle Astrophysics
and Cosmology (BIPAC), University of Oxford
(under negotiation, to be signed in 2010)
To summarize, NTU's LeCosPA Center strives to
maximally internationalize itself through recruitment
of outstanding junior fellows with competitive salaries
in the world's academic job market, through research
collaborations with the world's leading institutions,
and through the signing of collaboration MOU
with the world's leading universities to form "sister
institutions". We believe that this is an effective way
to promote the LeCosPA Center in order to take up
a leading position in the world on frontier research of
cosmology and particle astrophysics.■
64
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
International and Exchange Students
// International and Exchange Students65
International and Exchange StudentsResearch and Relaxation in Taiwan: Christopher Butler (克瑞斯) Graduate Institute of Physics
I am now a first-year research student in NTU's Physics department, studying with the generous support of the Taiwan Scholarship. I had studied mandarin since high school and continued casually throughout my time at university in the UK, and I have always been a compulsive traveler. What better place could there be to pursue these interests than Taiwan's most prestigious university?
As Taiwan's economy is grounded on science and technology, many of Taiwan's universities - chief amongst them NTU - have strong research groups and first-rate scientific facilities. Nevertheless, the research life at NTU is reasonably free and easy, and I still get the palpable sense that I am doing science on a tropical island - totally different to the feeling in the UK. If I feel like having a break, I can spend care-free days riding along the coasts of Penghu Island to the west of Taiwan, hit the beach at Kenting in the south or visit the charming Jiufen in the north.
My fellow students are unreservedly friendly and cheery. There is a huge variety of cuisine just outside the bounds of the campus - the food in Taiwan is several steps up from the food in the UK. Of course, there are too many diverse facilities and clubs at NTU to mention. Suffice to say, I was delighted to find a friendly archery club here, so I can carry on with one of my hobbies from where I left off in the UK. All in all, NTU is an endlessly interesting place to study. ■
Study and Life in Taiwan: Boukare Tapsoba (卜佳利) Department of Geosciences
I obtained a four-year scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan through the Taiwanese embassy in Ouagadougou in September 2003. I integrated a twelve-month Mandarin program at the Language Center of FuJen Catholic University. After classes, friends and I would hang out in markets to practice our new Chinese.
I became a new NTU student in 2004, after an application that includes an interview.
My integration into NTU had been greatly orchestrated. NTU volunteers´ group (NTUISIS) and the foreign students' association (NTUFSA) on one hand and the office of international students' affairs and the department office on the
other hand, were all very helpful in the academics and getting acquainted with the new environment. My involvement in NTUFSA had been beneficial; interacting with other students, (local and foreign) discovering Taiwanese culture and visiting new places. As campus life was interesting, academic achievements cannot be anything but good. In June 2006, I defended my Master thesis, sanctioned by an A+. I then enjoyed my summer vacation to its fullest before taking on my next challenges.
My application for the Ph.D. program had been accepted in September 2006 and I was able to pursue my studies with the same advisor.
Four academic years have passed, difficulties were encountered, but surely advances have been made and I stay confident that the PhD program will be brilliantly accomplished.
Campus life has gotten better and better. With the increasing interest granted to international students, more African students are coming to NTU. Through this we were able to organize an African Cultural Night in 2009. Touring Taiwan, with friends, has taken me to places such as Taroko Gorge, Green Island, Penghu and Kenting…It was during a visit to Taichung that I met my girlfriend Miss Natalie Head in December 2006. She later on became my fiancée and mother of my cute little boy, Waylon, who was born in April 2009 at NTU Hospital.
The possibility of a bilingual education, the facilities, and the opportunities, both job and the chance to meet with high ranked scholars visiting from all over the world, are some of the advantages NTU offers compared to the University of Ouagadougou. The two entities share the resilience and determination of their occupants.
I seize this opportunity to thank all those, who, one way or another make my life in Taiwan as pleasant as it is.■
66
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
My Experience in NTU: Katherine Buck (貝凱林) Department of Psychology
I chose to study in NTU because while I was learning Chinese, my teacher and Taiwanese friends said that NTU was the most prestigious university in Taiwan. Moreover, I wanted to remain in Taipei.
There are quite a few differences between studying psychology here and in Honduras. In Honduran universities, the bachelor degree of psychology leans towards clinical psychology and counseling; here in NTU, it leans towards general psychology and research in the different areas. Also, Honduran universities have a lot of practical, hands-on experience for the different courses, such as taking the students to kindergartens to work with the kids. Since NTU Psychology emphasizes research more than practical aspects, there are no such opportunities for undergraduates. This is not necessarily a bad thing; NTU Psychology gives a much more general idea of what this science is about and provides a good base for a Masters degree for further specialization.
Choosing NTU has given me quite a few great moments, like school trips with friends or performing at the International Night. For this performance, my friends and I fused Indian and Latin styles of dancing. It was a lot of work, but it was fun. Another great moment would be last year´s International Soccer Festival. Although NTU's team didn't win, it was still fun to get together with friends from other universities and just enjoy the games. ■
Reminescence of An Exchange Student: Victoria Illingsworth (殷凡雅) Department of Political Science
Right at the beginning of my stay in Taiwan, I was met at the airport by a volunteer from NTU and was given help in various ways. As an exchange student in NTU, I have a Taiwanese friend who helps me with anything I might need and takes care of me. My volunteer has been extremely friendly and helpful to me. Whenever I needed her, she was there for support. For example, when I told her I didn´t have a bike and
asked how I could get hold of one, she gave her brand new one to me during my stay here. For my birthday, she gave me a hand-made teddy bear and a very nice card to go along with it. She also introduced me to her closest friends and made me feel part of her group of friends.
I don't know if maybe I have just been lucky with my experiences in Taiwan. But, I have had for the most part good experiences here and I can safely state that I think the Taiwanese disposition to help foreigners is strong and very welcoming. I believe this outlook of the Taiwanese towards foreigners is what the Taiwan Tourism Bureau is trying to promote with its logo `Taiwan Touch Your Heart´ and all I want to add is that this island and its people have definitely touched mine.■
One Year in Berkeley: Wan-Schwin Allen Cheng (鎮萬勳) Department of Mathematics
There are some things that I can say without doubt, those clichés: I've learned a lot about foreign countries, I've made lots of friends…etc. My point is: this year has been one with life changing experiences.
As a student, I was looking forward to going to school in the best public school in the world. Cal did not let me down.
I took three traditional courses; by “traditional" I mean classes where you go to lecture, turn in homework, and you have a written final; most importantly, by the end, your professor still has no idea who you are whatsoever.
I do recommend anyone who has a chance to go to this wonderful university to try at least some of their practical courses: whether it's Lab, arts, dancing, language or in my case, singing and acting.
Cal has a very good pool of resources for students: more than 60 practice rooms equipped with pianos for musical practices, a full building of rooms for theater and dance, a recreational center, several pools, a botanical garden, several magnificent libraries and beautiful lawns where you can just lie down and bask in the sun.
The house that I lived in was always great for information, with 124 housemates, there's bound to be someone with the same problems, experiences, or majors as yours. People are usually genuinely friendly and congenial, including the stoner house manager and the student drug-dealer who lives down the hall! ■
Katherine Buck is first from the right.
67
Achievements of Alumni
Sun-Yung Alice Chang (張聖容)Analyst in Conformal Land
“I think that everybody has some type of geometric intuition. A problem would not be natural without the
geometric intuition."
“…computational method will never replace abstract thinking or imagination. You first need to have the
idea of something that happens, and then you use the computer to test the intuition. I always think of the
computer as a tool and it cannot replace the abstract thinking and intuition."
“I think there should be more women faculty to serve as role models. It's very hard for a woman to think
that this is a possible career if the faculty in a department are all men….This should be gradually changed
with more and more women getting into graduate school and then there would be more and more women in
the pipeline for assistant professors….One has to understand that the intellectual abilities of men and women
are the same."
“I'm a firm believer that, given a suitable environment in which to develop, women and men are equally
talented in mathematics."
Sun-Yung Alice Chang is well-known for her many important contributions to real harmonic analysis,
geometric analysis, nonlinear partial differential equations and applications of analysis to problems in
68
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
// Achievements of Alumni69
differential geometry. In 1995 the American Mathematical Society awarded her the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in
Mathematics (awarded every two years to a woman for outstanding research in mathematics) for her deep
contributions to the study of partial differential equations on Riemannian manifolds.
Born in Xian, China, she grew up in Taiwan and had her undergraduate education at the National Taiwan
University (1970) and her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley (1974). She has taught at the State
University of New York at Buffalo, University of Maryland and University of California at Los Angeles before
moving, in 1998, to Princeton University where she became a full professor in 1999; and is currently the chair
of the Mathematics Department. She was elected as a member of American Academy of Arts and Science in
2008, and National Academy of Science (USA) in 2009.
She has given invited addresses at major mathematics meetings and conferences, including a 45-minute
talk at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) at Berkeley in 1986, a one-hour plenary talk at the
ICM at Beijing in 2002 and an AMS Colloquium talk in 2004. In 2001 she gave the Emmy Noether Lecture
of the U.S.-based Association for Women in Mathematics. She has served as editor of several leading
mathematical journals and was Vice-President of the American Mathematical Society from 1989 to 1991. In
1988, she received the Outstanding Woman of Science Award from University of California at Los Angeles.
Her life and work is a fine example of what women are capable of achieving in mathematics and has set an
inspiring role model for women pursuing careers in the scientific field. Her husband Paul Yang is also her
long-term collaborator in mathematical research, and they have a son and a daughter.■
Agostinelli Award Received by Mathematician Tai-Ping Liu (劉太平)
Dr. Tai-Ping Liu, Academician and Director of the Institute of Mathematics, has been awarded the "Cataldo
e Angiola Agostinelli" International Prize by Italy's Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Dr. Liu received the award
at the ceremony on June 11th, 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 biennially to an eminent international scholar in the field of
pure or applied mathematics or mathematical physics. The award was presented to eminent Italian scholars
in the field of cancer research or of high moral and humanitarian value in alternating years.
Dr. Liu was graduated from the Department of Mathematics, National Taiwan University in 1968. The
intense atmosphere there has long-lasting impact on him. It was then that he learned of the importance of
70
The College of Science at National Taiwan University
nonlinear partial differential equations which helped to decide the direction of his future efforts. He obtained
his M.S. at Oregon State University in 1970 and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1973. After spending
his academic years at University of Maryland (1973-1988), New York University (1988-1990), and Stanford
University (since 1990), he moved back to Taiwan permanently in 2000, and is now the Director of Institute of
Mathematics at Academia Sinica.
Dr Liu has made fundamental contributions to nonlinear partial differential equations, particularly in shock
wave theory and the kinetic theory of gases. In shock wave theory, the Liu entropy condition was introduced;
solution behavior for hyperbolic conservation laws, nonlinear stability of viscous waves, relaxation models,
and the resolution of the Prandtl shock reflection paradox were studied. Since coming back to Taiwan, he
has initiated the quantitative study for the Boltzmann equation. His approach which is based on the Green's
function and time-asymptotic analysis yields new understanding of the nonlinear waves and boundary layers
of the Boltzmann equation.
Over the years, Dr. Liu has made continuing efforts in the nurturing of young researchers, more so
since coming back to Taiwan. He feels that the greatest joy of a scientist is to see the new generation of
researchers yielding unexpected results.
For his scientific contributions, Dr. Liu received several honors, including the Sloane Fellowship,
Guggenheim Fellowship, and Agostinelli Award from Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He was elected
Academician of Academia Sinica in 1992.■
// Achievements of Alumni71
Facts and Figures--Faculty and Students
Faculty Member Population
Student Population
Undergraduate Students by Departments
Graduate Students by Departments
■ Mathematics: (240, 15%)
■ Physics: (294, 18%)
■ Chemistry: (291, 18%)
■ Geosciences: (169, 10%)
■ Psychology: (310, 19%)
■ Geography: (190, 11%)
■ Atmospheric Sciences: (156, 9%)
Total: 1,650
■ Mathematics: (135, 9%)
■ Physics: (320, 21%)
■ Chemistry: (409, 27%)
■ Geosciences: (126, 8%)
■ Psychology: (163, 11%)
■ Geography: (93, 6%)
■ Atmospheric Sciences: (75, 5%)
■ Oceanography: (159, 10%)
■ Astrophysics: (31, 2%)
■ Applied Physics: (17, 1%)
Total: 1,528
■ Professor: (158, 68%)
■ Assoc. Professor: (39, 17%)
■ Asst. Professor: (33, 14%)
■ Instructor: (2, 1%)
Total: 232
■ Undergraduate: (1650, 52%)
■ M.S.: (911, 29%)
■ Ph.D.: (617, 19%)
Total: 3,178
1650
911
617
15839
33 2
294
291169
310
190156 240
135
320
409126
93
75159
163
31 17
72
// Facts and Figures - Faculty and Students