The Teco Award was set up by the Teco Technology Foundation Chemical with the aim to honor outstanding talents who have made substantial technological innovations, as well as to facilitate the advancement of society and humanity in Taiwan. On November 8, 2008, two National Tsing Hua University professors Chen-Chem Ma of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Ann-Shyn Chiang of the Institute of Biotechnology were bestowed the special honor in the mechanical/materials/energy category and chemical engineering/biology/biomedical engineering category, respectively. The awards were personally presented by R.O.C. Vice President Vincent C. Siew.

Professor Chen-Chem Ma of the Department of Chemical Engineering is a long-time devotee of research and industrial application of materials/energy technology. No stranger to important awards at home and aboard, he is awarded the Teco Award for contributions to the industry, specifically for his newly developed carbon composite materials. His invention, achieved via nanotechnology, could be applied in the energy industry. Professor Ma began teaching after returning to Taiwan in 1984. Since then he has actively endeavored in teaching and research at school and consultancy and service in the industry. In addition to improving research and development through academic researches, Ma has also been devoting to innovation and inventions, as well as intellectual property rights protection. He has obtained more than 70 patents in Taiwan and other countries with many inventions and research results transferred to Chung-shan Institute of Science & Technology, Industrial Technology Research Institute, and industries in Taiwan. Meanwhile, Professor Ma maintains a keen interest in technology service and education promotion. His many efforts include assisting National Science Council’s "Intellectual Property Protection of Research Results" and Ministry of Education’s "Innovation Education Project," serving as a co-convener in Ministry of Economic Affairs’ "Innovative Life Industry" Technology Committee, a consultant of Ministry of Economic Affair's Science and Technology Advisors Office and Department of Industrial Technology, and director and standing director of the International Society of Engineers/R.O.C. Section for many years. Needless to say, Professor Ma has been an exceptional contributor to Taiwan's innovative technology and education programs, industry consultancy in technology policy, promotion of technology advancement, and intellectual property right protection. It is further worth mentioning the other awards that were presented to him in recent years. Not limited to the Teco Award, he is also a recipient of NTHU's Excellent University-Industry Cooperation Award and Ministry of Economic Affair's Individual Achievement Award of the University-Industry Economic Contribution Awards. In the JEC Asia Composite Show 2008 the NTHU Wind and Solar Power Research Team under Professor Ma's leadership triumphantly received the Energy Application Category/Innovation Award for the achievements garnered through their outstanding industry-academia collaborations.

On the other hand, Professor Ann-Shyn Chiang of the Institute of Biotechnology is a long-time neurology researcher whose innovation and breakthrough contributions have made him a model for the international neurology community. The tissue clarification technology and neurology research methods he invented and established have wide application potentials and have shed light for the advancement of bioimage industry. This particular achievement was recognized by jurors of the award. He was promoted as professor at NTHU in 1997, a time when genome sequencing was a hot topic in the scientific world. Back then, Professor Chiang already had the foresight to investigate the function of all genes when genome sequencing was finally completed. He first proved that insects use the same genetic products for learning and memory, just like humans. His research was published in PNAS (2002) and Current Biology (2005). This discovery further accelerated our understanding of the basic mechanisms of brain. Moreover, he spent five years to develop a new test—FocusClear^TM that can clarify tissues for clear visualization of brain nerve cells of fruit fly. Using FocusClear^TM and confocal microscope technology, Professor Chiang obtained high resolution 3D neural network images of the fruit fly brain that led to the world's first olfactory neural network map. This was the first description of olfactory signal transmission route and type in the brain. The research was published in Cell (SCI=29) in 2007, receiving positive response from the science circles at home and aboard. Using these images, he also discovered possible brain areas that fruit fly uses to store long-term memory. His paper was published in the leading journal in the field of neurology Nature Neuroscience (SCI=15) in the same year of the discovery.

"With the Teco Award, my heart is weighed by a greater sense of responsibility than uplifted by excitement. Taiwan has in comparison lesser funding and fewer talents. I hope my success would act as an inspiration for Taiwanese scientists and a model for young talents. I also hope that in the future I could educate more students that surpass my accomplishments and use their excellent innovation to compete with those of advanced countries," said Professor Chiang when accepting the award. Indeed, the hard work and success of both award recipients are expected to serve as an example and source of inspiration for their colleagues and young researches alike.