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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


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


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


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.


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


Dr. Jung-Kai Chen （陳榮凱）Department of Mathematics


Dr. Guang-Yu Guo （郭光宇）Department of Physics


Dr. Xiao-Gang He （何小剛）Department of Physics


Dr. Chuan-Chou Shen （沈川洲）Department of Geosciences




Dr. Jenn-Nan Wang （王振男）Department of Mathematics


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


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. ▓


18

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. ▓


20

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


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.

■


22

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. ■


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)


24

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.＂▓


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.


26

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. ▓


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


28

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. ▓


◄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.


30

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. ▓


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)


32

729 651750

857 872

2005 2006 2007 2008 20090

200400600800

1000

YEAR

Publications in SCI and SSCI Journals

Num

ber o

f Pub

licat

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


▌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


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. ■


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


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.■


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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）


// Acdemic Exchange Agreements53

Academic Exchange Agreements

54


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


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


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


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


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.


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


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


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


// 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


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

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