National Taiwan University (NTU) has elected Dean of the College of Engineering Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) as its new president, the country’s preeminent higher education institute announced Friday.
Chen won a majority of the ballots cast by the 21 members of NTU’s Presidential Search Committee in a run-off vote, Liang Kung-yee (梁賡義), convener of the committee, told a press conference.
According to Liang, committee members had chosen Chen on the basis of his academic achievements and his ability to pour resources into not only the College of Engineering but also other colleges at the university.
Chen will begin his four-year term as the university’s 13th president on Jan. 8, 2023, succeeding Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), who chose not to seek another term.
The NTU president-elect thanked students, faculty members, and the Presidential Search Committee for placing their trust in him.
Chen also pledged to do his best to bring more glory to the nearly 100-old university as it enters its second century.
In a written statement, Chen proposed eight strategies to develop the university, including strengthening its capacity for international cooperation, supporting research in pioneering fields, and ensuring financial sustainability.
A 1985 graduate of NTU’s undergraduate chemical engineering program, Chen received a Ph.D from the University of Rochester in the U.S. in 1993.
Chen is also the chair of NTU’s Optoelectronic Polymer Laboratory, which studies the electronic and optical properties of donor-acceptor polymers through chemical structure design, charge transport, band gaps, and light-emitting characteristics.
Following a vote by 172 members of the NTU’s representatives in early September, the nine people who declared candidacy for NTU president were narrowed down to six.
They were: Kuo Tei-wei (郭大維), distinguished professor of NTU’s Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering; James Yang (楊志新), director of the NTU’s Cancer Center; Hwang Juey-jen (黃瑞仁), former superintendent of NTU Hospital’s Yunlin Branch; Li Pai-chi (李百祺), who heads NTU’s Office of Research and Development; Benson Yeh (葉丙成), a professor of engineering of NTU, and Chen.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel