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The 5th meeting of the 25th Academia Sinica Council was convened today (December 13) for the selection of candidates for the 13th President of Academia Sinica.

Academia Sinica and the CPC Corporation have recently drilled Taiwan’s first deep geothermal exploratory well. The joint project in Yuanshan, Yilan includes comprehensive geological and heat-source analyses. According to the Academia Sinica research team, this experimental well is the first to drill nearly 4,000 meters underground, with a bottom-hole temperature approaching 150 degrees Celsius, confirming the presence of an ascending heat source. The findings indicate that the deep geothermal resources in the northern Yilan Plain possess high development potential and warrant further exploration. Through the concerted efforts of industry, government, academia, and research institutions, deep geothermal energy may soon become a driving force in Taiwan’s green energy transition.

On December 1, Academia Sinica hosted the second TAIWAN BRIDGES series lecture, featuring Ms. Nadia Murad, recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. In her lecture “Who Can Influence the End of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) Worldwide? – The Power of Personal Stories and the Role of Activism,” Ms. Murad discussed her personal journey and her longstanding advocacy of global human rights.

The Awards Ceremony for the Academia Sinica Early-Career Investigator Research Achievement Award and the Scholarly Monograph Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences was held on December 1. Six scholars and five monographs were selected for awards, which were presented by Academia Sinica President James C. Liao. President Liao remarked that there are few national-level awards in Taiwan established for scholars early in their careers. Academia Sinica Early-Career Investigator Research Achievement Award has continued recognizing research talent and encouraging young people to engage in innovative and frontier research for 30 years. The Scholarly Monograph Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences, on the other hand, recognizes books that demonstrate outstanding research and ground-breaking insights. It contributes to Taiwan’s scholarly advancement in areas such as history, culture, social development, and public policy. This year marks the first time that the two awards have been presented in a joint ceremony, deepening academic exchange and interdisciplinary dialogue and demonstrates the efforts to support diverse research talents and expand the frontiers of academic research in Taiwan.

Academia Sinica’s Institute of Ethnology (IOE) opened the special exhibition “Professor de Beauclair’s Grand Tour of Taiwan” on November 24, 2025, centering on its first foreign female researcher, Inez de Beauclair. The exhibition presents her life journey, which was devoted entirely to cultural exploration.

The TAIWAN BRIDGES lecture series officially opened yesterday (November 20) at Academia Sinica. The inaugural talk featured Professor Roger D. Kornberg, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Delivering a lecture titled “The End of Disease? The Extraordinary Developments in Biomedicine and the Implications for Humanity,” Professor Kornberg presented science-driven solutions to global threats such as pandemics. The event, which drew over 500 participants, featured Professor Kornberg delivering a lecture followed by a lively question and answer session that covered a wide range of topics related to the presentation.

To enhance engagement among Taiwanese and leading global scholars, Academia Sinica has joined forces with National Taiwan University and 12 other academic institutions in collaboration with the International Peace Foundation, to launch the Taiwan Bridges Event Series. Over the next six months, more than 30 Nobel laureates are scheduled to visit Taiwan for a series of talks and academic exchanges.

The opening reception for “From Reflection to Direction: Academia Sinica Architecture and Environment Exhibition” was held on November 6. President James C. Liao noted that, since Academia Sinica relocated to Nangang in 1954, the planning of its campus has been closely tied to shifts in research priorities and societal change. From its modest beginnings on three hectares of farmland to today’s 38-hectare campus, this growth reflects Academia Sinica’s enduring commitment to scholarly advancement and, moreover, Taiwan’s transformation from rural landscapes to a modern metropolis. The major buildings on campus stand as a microcosm of the development of modern architecture in Taiwan. Centered on the themes of “Tracing the Origins” and “Envisioning the Future, ” the exhibition traces the architectural evolution of the campus, pays tribute to the design concepts and academic spirit embodied across different eras, and presents a forward-looking vision for future campus development.<br/>The exhibition is divided into two sections. Exhibition 1 presents early iconic buildings of the Nangang Campus, highlighting the works of postwar architects and engagement with subsequent generations. It illustrates how architecture establishes order and shapes the campus’s spatial character and spirit. Exhibition 2 presents the current development and future plans for the Nangang Campus, the National Biotechnology Research Park, and the South Campus, reflecting contemporary efforts to create a welcoming environment.<br/>Additionally, the future vision of the Academia Sinica campus will be unveiled for the first time in this exhibition. As academic and societal demands continue to evolve, the campus seeks to advance toward a more flexible, sustainable, and friendly research environment. This vision will be pursued in the spirit of “Tracing the Origins, Moving Forward,” reflecting on the past while imagining the future.<br/>The exhibition runs from October 19, 2025 through January 16, 2026, and is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The public is warmly invited to visit, explore the architectural history of Academia Sinica, and envision its role in leading Taiwan’s intellectual and scholarly innovation.

The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative (TPMI), led by Academia Sinica, has established the world’s largest precision medicine research cohort of Han Chinese individuals. By integrating genetic and clinical data, the initiative has developed disease risk prediction methods across multiple conditions, laying a crucial scientific foundation for improving healthcare among more than one billion people of Han Chinese ancestry worldwide.<br/>Academia Sinica President James C. Liao emphasized that “[t]he global foundation of precision medicine has long been based primarily on data from cohorts of European descent. Through TPMI, Taiwan has built a large-scale cohort and database for disease research that reflects the genetic characteristics and their relationship to disease of Han populations. This represents not only a major scientific breakthrough but also a milestone in public health.”<br/>Partnered with 16 healthcare systems and 33 hospitals across Taiwan, the TPMI recruited over 500,000 participants to build the world’s most comprehensive genetic and clinical database for the Han populations. Using this resource, researchers have developed risk predictors for a wide range of diseases, including autoimmune diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disorders and diabetes. <br/>According to Academician Yuan-Tsong Chen, a TPMI scientific advisor, the team recently published two major papers in Nature. The first paper describes the establishment of the 500,000-person cohort and the systematic collection of medical and genetic data; the second demonstrates how large-scale biomedical data analysis can be used to develop disease risk prediction models. These publications highlight Taiwan’s scientific excellence and contributions that garnered international acclaim and opened a new chapter in disease prevention in Asian populations.

Academia Sinica and the Royal Society co-hosted the “UK-Taiwan Bilateral Meeting: Biology for Health, Food and Energy” from October 15 to 17 in London, marking another milestone in strengthening academic collaboration between the United Kingdom and Taiwan.

This year marks the 32nd year of the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) Annual Conference and Joint Meetings. Vice President of Academia Sinica and newly appointed PNC Chair, Dr. Shin-Kun Peng, led the Academia Sinica delegation at the PNC 2025 conference, held at the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) in Hanoi. From September 20th through the 22nd, the three-day event brought together over one hundred experts and scholars from China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Academia Sinica Vice President Shin-Kun Peng, along with Han-Ching Wang, Director-General of the National Central Library, presented books to the Institute of Social Sciences Information at VASS, symbolizing the commitment to deepening bilateral academic cooperation and exchange.

A research team led by Academia Sinica <br/>President Dr. James C. Liao, in collaboration with interdisciplinary experts from Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC), the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center (ABRC), and the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB), has recently designed an artificial carbon fixation cycle using synthetic biology.