Taiwan Today
Date: November 18, 2016
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) announced the inclusion of Taiwan scholars Chiang Ann-
shyn and Chu Yun-han on its list of 40 newly elected fellows during the Italy-based institution’s 27th General Meeting Nov. 14-17 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Both honorees are distinguished members of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top academic institution. Chiang was honored by TWAS for his contributions in the areas of biological systems and organisms, while Chu was recognized for his work in social and economic sciences.
Chiang primarily studies memory circuits within the brains of Drosophila, a genus of small flies, in the hope of increasing understanding of how genes and circuits orchestrate complex behaviors. Chu focuses on East Asian democratization and political economy and is known for launching the Asian Barometer Survey, the region’s foremost comparative survey.
TWAS praised Chiang on its website for his “outstanding contribution to our understanding of memory formation using a connectomics approach” and describes Chu as “a pioneer in developing theories and methods for studying the consolidation of young democracies through survey research.” [FULL STORY]