Academia Sinica held the Research Award for Junior Researchers ceremony in the morning of June 9th, 2008. Three young Tsing Hua faculty members were awarded for their academic achievements. They are Wang Daw-Wei, Department of Physics, and Tsai Yi-Chou, Department of Chemistry (both for the Mathematics and Physical Sciences category) and Professor Huang Hui-chuan, Institute of Linguistics (for the Humanities and Social Sciences category).

While still a doctoral student, Professor Wang Daw-Wei had already developed his first complete theory to explain the resonant Raman scattering in semiconductor quantum wire and quantum well. He also worked on the problem of high density of excitons in low dimensional semiconductor systems. In 2001-2002, he developed a comprehensive meanfield theory to study the impact of parallel magnetic field in the single layer and double layer quantum Hall system. Since 2002, Professor Wang delves into the emerging field of ultracold atom systems and was the first to propose a quantitative theory for the fragmentation phenomenon of ultracold atom in an atomic waveguide. He also developed some theories for Bose-Fermi mixture, quantum dynamical problems, and new cold atom systems with symmetry breaking. After returning to Taiwan, he further developed a strong coupling theory of Bose-Fermi mixtures applicable to experimental parameters. Now his interest changes to the many-body theory in cold polar molecules, and have published several important works in Phys. Rev. Lett. In his acceptance speech, Professor Wang expressed his gratitude for the support he has received from Department of Physics. He believes that the award is an encouragement for him personally and a tribute to the sound research environment that NTHU has created.

Professor Tsai Yi-Chou's research endeavor, as an inorganic chemist, is to synthesize highly active but stable metal complexes to selectively activate thermodynamically highly stable small molecules, such as dinitrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The goal of his projects is to transform these gases into substances of economic value. The method that his team uses is to synthesize low-valent and low-coordinate transition metal complexes. Using this method, the team has synthesized many low-coordinate bimetallic complexes whose reactivity themselves demand further studies. When Professor Tsai spoke of his research contribution, he explained that since metal-metal quadruple bond was discovered in 1964, it has been extensively researched by scientists of chemical synthesis as well as theorists. Currently more than one thousand quadruply-bonded dinuclear complexes were reported and they are included in all inorganic chemistry textbooks. Tsai's team recently reported an unusual quadruply-bonded dimolybdenum complex, whose structure and metal-metal quadruple bond are both different than those reported in the past. Their finding opens a new door for chemists to study metal-metal quadruple bonds. Moreover, the team has also synthesized a univalent singly-bonded dizinc complex. Zn usually exists as a divalent species in its oxidation state, and thus Zn (I)-Zn (I) bond synthesis is very rare.

Professor Huang Hui-chuan is a phonology and phonetics specialist in Austronesian languages. Speaking of her research contribution, Huang said there are many discussions on changes in individual segmental sounds in Austronesian linguistic phonology, but very few are made on the syllables formed after linking segmental sounds, as well as rhythm distinctions between stresses and non-stresses. Her three-thesis series that received the award is a contribution to the understanding of the rhythmic structure in Bunun language, including the relationship between prosodic words and their root, internal structure of syllables, mora, syllable forms and segmental sound patterns. Her studies provided an in-depth explanation and analysis of the Bunun language and how such a case study can contribute to the development of theoretical phonology. Professor Huang expressed her appreciation for her family's support in allowing her to realize her dream to study linguistics. She also further thanked Tsing Hua for providing her an excellent academic research environment and expressed her hope to continue documenting the precious Austronesian languages that are spoken by less and less people as acculturation occurs.

The Academia Sinica Research Award for Junior Researchers was established to encourage young Taiwanese scholars to devote themselves to innovation, vision and excellence. The award has three categories, the Mathematics and Physical sciences, Life Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences. It serves to encourage and inspire Taiwan's going scholars and is seen as a prestigious award in the academic field. With three professors taking home the award, Tsing Hua has shown its solid academic strength and potential.