2026.07.16

 

Election to Academia Sinica is regarded as one of the highest academic honors in Taiwan. On July 9, Academia Sinica announced the election of 19 new academicians for its 35th class, including nine members of the National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) community: Professor Hsing-Wen Sung, Professor Anne Chao, Professor Peter Kaehuei Liaw, Professor Wen-Ching Winnie Li, Professor Kuan-chung Huang, alumnus Tung-Hai Li, alumnus Edward Yi Chang, alumna Tai-ping Sun, and alumnus Shien-Yang Wu.

 

Among this year's newly elected academicians, alumni Tung-Hai Li and Edward Yi Chang both graduated from NTHU in the Class of 1977, joining fellow Class of 1977 alumni Chih-Hwa Yu and Wei Shyy, who were elected as Academia Sinica academicians in the 34th class.

 

An especially remarkable distinction is that academicians Tung-Hai Li, Chih-Hwa Yu, and Professor Yi-Long Huang, who was elected in the 26th class, were classmates in NTHU's Department of Physics. The three scholars have been elected to different divisions of Academia Sinica—Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences—demonstrating NTHU's longstanding tradition of interdisciplinary excellence and its enduring ability to cultivate scholars who make significant contributions across diverse fields.

 

Hsing-Wen Sung

 

Academician, Division of Engineering Sciences

 

Professor Hsing-Wen Sung is an NTHU Distinguished Chair Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and a Taiwan Ministry of Education Lifetime National Chair Professor. His research focuses on biomaterials, drug and gene delivery, and tissue engineering.

 

Anne Chao

 

Academician, Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences

 

Professor Anne Chao is an Honorary Chair Professor at NTHU's College of Science, Professor Emerita of the Institute of Statistics, and an alumna of the Department of Mathematics (Class of 1973). She previously served as an NTHU Distinguished Chair Professor and National Chair Professor. Her research specializes in ecological statistics, biodiversity data analysis, and statistical inference.

 

Peter Kaehuei Liaw

 

Academician, Division of Engineering Sciences

 

Professor Peter Kaehuei Liaw is an alumnus of NTHU's Department of Physics (Class of 1972). He is an NTHU Honorary Chair Professor and currently a visiting scholar at the NTHU High Entropy Materials Center. His research focuses on high-entropy alloys (HEAs), bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), mechanical behavior of materials, fatigue, fracture, life prediction, and nondestructive evaluation.

 

Wen-Ching Winnie Li

 

Academician, Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences

 

Professor Wen-Ching Winnie Li is the Hou Chin-Tui Chair Professor at NTHU and Evan Pugh University Professor of Mathematics at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include modular forms, number theory, and spectral graph theory.

 

Kuan-chung Huang

 

Academician, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences

 

Professor Kuan-chung Huang previously served as Professor and Director of NTHU's Institute of History. His research focuses on Southern Song history, Song political and military history, Song social and cultural history, and textual studies of Song dynasty historical documents.

 

Tung-Hai Li

 

Academician, Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences

 

Professor Tung-Hai Li is an alumnus of NTHU's Department of Physics (Class of 1977) and currently serves as Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research specializes in theoretical condensed matter physics.

 

Edward Yi Chang

 

Academician, Division of Engineering Sciences

 

Professor Edward Yi Chang is an alumnus of NTHU's Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Class of 1977) and Lifetime Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. His research focuses on compound semiconductor materials and device technologies.

 

Tai-ping Sun

 

Academician, Division of Life Sciences

 

Professor Tai-ping Sun is an alumna of NTHU's Department of Chemistry (Class of 1980), Professor of Biology at Duke University, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Her research specializes in plant molecular biology and genetics.

 

Shien-Yang Wu

 

Academician, Division of Engineering Sciences

 

Shien-Yang Wu is an alumnus of NTHU's EMBA program (Class 3) and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Research and Development / Technology Development at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). His research and professional expertise focus on semiconductor process technology development and device integration.