Taipei Times
Date: Aug 28, 2016
By: Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA
Audrey Tang (唐鳳), at 35 already a retired entrepreneur and self-taught computer programmer who
Audrey Tang, former adviser to BenQ and Apple, poses for a picture in an undated photo. Photo: CNA
is considered one of Taiwan’s brightest, is set to add another line of code to her resume: In October, she is to join the Cabinet as a minister without portfolio.
Tang, who will be the Executive Yuan’s first transgender official, founded her own company at the age of 16 despite dropping out of junior-high school.
Tang — who reportedly has an IQ of 180 — is a prominent member of groups using the Haskell and Perl programming languages and has contributed to the designs of systems such as Kwiki, Windows RT and Slash.
Her parents said that she was reading classic literature in a variety of languages and solving simultaneous equations by the time she was in first grade.
Unable to find her way in mainstream education, Tang is mainly self-taught and, having a knack for computers, she was able to harness the exponential growth of new technologies to advance her education. [FULL STORY]
