NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY

'National Taiwan University' (; POJ: Kok-li̍p Tâi-ôan Tāi-ha̍k; abbreviation 'NTU')^[2] is a national university in Taipei City, Taiwan. In Chinese, it is often shortened to 臺大 (pinyin: TáiDà).
The entrance examination score needed to enter National Taiwan University is typically the highest among universities in Taiwan, and using this ranking, NTU is widely considered the best and most prestigious university in Taiwan. NTU has very strong ties with Academia Sinica. NTU admits students based solely on merits, disregarding other factors such as race, religion, or gender. The female-to-male ratio in the undergraduate population is about 0.9:1.
NTU has produced many political and social leaders in Taiwan. Both the pan-blue and pan-green movements in Taiwan are rooted on the NTU campus.

Contents

History

Education

Campus

Organization

The Presidents

Alumni

Academics

University chancellors

Humanities and social sciences

Physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering

Life sciences

Politics

Entertainment

Notes

See also

External links

History

The predecessor of National Taiwan University was Taihoku Imperial University (台北帝國大学　Taihoku Teikoku Daigaku), founded by the Japanese Government in 1928, as a member of the imperial universities in the Empire of Japan. The first president was Hiroshi Shidehara. When Taihoku Imperial University was first established, it had two colleges: the College of Liberal Arts and Law, and the College of Science and Agriculture, and had a total of 60 students. The College of Medicine and the College of Engineering were added in 1936 and 1943, respectively. The university was for Japanese nationals and very few Taiwanese people were admitted.
After World War II and the return of Chinese control, the Republic of China government renamed it as National Taiwan University on November 15, 1945 and appointed Lo Tsung-lo as the first president. The University has undergone multiple times of reorganization ever since. As of the 2004 academic year, the University has a total of 11 colleges, 54 departments, and 96 graduate institutes (which offer 96 Master's programs and 83 doctoral programs). The number of students reached 29,877 in 2004, including those enrolling in the Division of Continuing Education & Professional Development. A new library was built in 1998, and now contains over 3,000,000 volumes of books.
Detailed Outline of University History

Education

The educational system in NTU is very similar to United States. The university offers degrees of Bachelor, Master and PhD in almost every discipline. Students are given the flexibility to select courses offered by any colleges; however the mandatory subjects set by each of the majors still need to be completed to be awarded a degree. A student must declare a major before admission, and in fact, some majors are more competitive than others and require a higher national examination score. Traditionally, medicine, electrical engineering, and law are the three most selective majors. The medical degree takes 7 years to finish, while most of the other majors take 4 years.
NTU requires most of its undergraduate students to take a mandatory core curriculum, comprising Chinese, Freshman English, R.O.C. Constitution, Calculus, and (Western or Chinese) History. The medical school in addition dictates each of its students to take Philosophy and Sociology classes as well as seminars in Ethics and Thanatology. Military Training is no longer obligatory for males, but it is a prerequisite if the student plans to be an officer during his mandatory military service.

Campus

The University has six campuses in the greater Taipei region (including Taipei County) and two additional campuses in Nantou County, amounting to ~1% of the total area of the Taiwan island. The University governs farms, forests, and hospitals for educational and research purposes. The main campus is in Taipei's Da-An district, where most department buildings and all the administrative buildings are located. Notable exceptions are the College of Law and the College of Medicine, which are located near the Presidential Building (Taiwan).
Interactive map of the main campus

Organization

A president (校長) heads the University. Each college (院) is headed by a dean (院長), and each department (系) by a chairman (系主任). Students elect their own representatives each year to attend administrative meetings.
The University has eleven colleges:

★ College of Liberal Arts

★ College of Science

★ College of Social Science

★ College of Medicine

★ College of Engineering

★ College of Bio-resource and Agriculture

★ College of Management

★ College of Public Health

★ College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

★ College of Law

★ College of Life Science
The International Chinese Language Program (ICLP), originally founded by Stanford University, is located at National Taiwan University.

The Presidents

'Presidents of Taihoku Imperial University':

★ Hiroshi Shidehara (幣原坦): March 1928-September 1937

★ Sadanori Mita (三田定則): September 1937-April 1941

★ Masatsugu Ando (安藤正次): April 1941-March 1945

★ Kazuo Ando (安藤一雄): March 1945-August 1945
'Presidents of National Taiwan University':

★ Lo Tsung-lo (羅宗洛): August 1945-July 1946

★ Lu Chih-hung (陸志鴻): August 1946-May 1948

★ Chuang Chang-kung (莊長恭): June 1948-December 1948

★ Fu Szu-nien (傅斯年): January 1949-December 1950

★ Shen Kang-po (沈剛伯): December 1950-January 1951

★ Chien Szu-liang (錢思亮): January 1951-May 1970

★ Yen Cheng-hsing (閻振興): June 1970-July 1981

★ Yu Chao-chung (虞兆中): August 1981-July 1984

★ Sun Chen (孫震): August 1984-February 1993

★ Kou Guang-hsiung (郭光雄): March 1993-July 1993

★ Chen Wei-Jao (陳維昭): August 1993-June 2005

★ Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔): August 2005-

Alumni

NTU alumni are influential in the politics of Taiwan as well as in academics. Many NTU scholars enjoy a portion of their career outside of Taiwan, most frequently in U.S.A.

Academics

University chancellors

★ Tien, Chang-lin (田長霖): the 8th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley

★ Henry T. Yang (楊祖佑): the 5th Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara

Humanities and social sciences

★ Kwang-chih Chang (張光直): Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University

★ Peter Chen (陳品山): originator of the Entity-Relationship Model

★ Leo Ou-fan Lee (李歐梵): Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University

★ Pai Hsien-yung (白先勇): author of ''Taipei People'' (''臺北人''); Professor of Chinese Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara

★ Ying-Shih Yu (余英時): Professor of Chinese Studies, Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Princeton University

★ George C. Tiao (刁錦寰): Professor of Econometrics and Statistics, University of Chicago

Physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering

★ Wu-Chung Hsiang (項武忠): Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University

★ Wu-Yi Hsiang (項武義): Professor of Mathematics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley

★ Chun-Hway Hsueh: ISI ''high-cited researcher'' in materials science; Distinguished R&D Staff, Metals & Ceramics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

★ Jin Au Kong (孔金甌): Professor of Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

★ Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲): Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1986; Professor Emeritus of Physical Chemistry, National Taiwan University

★ Tai-Ping Liu (劉太平): Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University

★ Ho-kwang (David) Mao (毛河光): Balzan Prize, 2005; Gregori Aminoff Prize, 2005; Roebling Medal, 2005; Staff, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington

★ Chong Chiuh Khiun : Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Englineering, Nanyang University

★ Chiang-Chung Mei (梅強中): Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

★ Teresa H. Meng(孟懷縈): Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University; Founder of Atheros Communications, Inc.

★ Simon M. Sze (施敏): pioneer in MOSFET; IEEE J J Ebers Award, 1991

★ Yu-Chong Tai (戴聿昌): pioneer in microelectromechanical system (MEMS); Professor of Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

★ Weng I. Wang (王文一): Professor of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University

★ Chi-Huey Wong (翁啟惠): Professor of Chemistry, the Scripps Research Institute; President of Academia Sinica(in Taiwan)

★ Chien-Fu Jeff Wu (吳建福): Coca Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics, Georgia Institute of Technology; Member, National Academy of Engineering, USA

★ Yao, Andrew (姚期智): Turing Award (''Nobel Prize'' of computing), 2000; Professor, Princeton University; Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing (2004-)

★ Horng-Tzer Yau (姚鴻澤): MacArthur Fellowship, 2000; Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University

★ Nai-Chang Yeh (葉乃裳): Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology

Life sciences

★ Chuan-Chiung Chang (張傳炯): co-discoverer of bungarotoxin; Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology, National Taiwan University

★ Ding-Shinn Chen, M.D. (陳定信): authority on hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma; Dean, NTU College of Medicine; Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences, USA

★ Lan-Bo Chen (陳良博): Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

★ Pei-Jer Chen, M.D. (陳培哲): authority on hepatitis D virus; Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar; Professor of Medicine, NTU

★ Wei-Jao Chen, M.D. (陳維昭): President, NTU, 1993-2005; pioneer in surgical separation of ischiopagus tripus conjoined twins

★ Yuan-Tsong Chen, M.D. (陳垣崇): inventor of Myozyme, the first EMEA- and FDA-approved treatment for Pompe disease (approved in 2006); Director, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica; former Chief and Professor, the Pediatrics Division of Medical Genetics, Duke University Medical Center

★ Yao-Tseng Chen, M.D.: Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College

★ Yu-Ray Chen, M.D. (陳昱瑞): President, International Society of Craniofacial Surgery, 1999-2000

★ Shu Chien, M.D. (錢煦): University Professor, University of California; President, the American Physiological Society, 1990-1; President Elect, the Biomedical Engineering Society, USA, 2005-6

★ Tuan-Hua David Ho (賀端華): ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) ''highly cited researcher'' in plant and animal science; UNESCO Professorship, 2004; Director and Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, 2003-

★ Ru-Chih Chow Huang (黃周汝吉): American Women in Science, 1985; Professor of Biology, Johns Hopkins University

★ Tao-shih Hsieh (謝道時): Professor of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center

★ Su-Ming Hsu, M.D. (許世明): ISI ''highly cited researcher'' in clinical medicine (cited more than 10,000 times between 1981 and 1992); Professor of Pathology, NTU

★ Lily Y. Jan (葉公杼): Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco

★ Yuh Nung Jan (詹裕農): Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Professor of Molecular Physiology, University of California, San Francisco

★ Selina Chen-Kiang: Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College

★ Michael M. C. Lai, M.D. (賴明詔): Vice President, Academia Sinica; Distinguished Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Southern California; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, 1990-2003

★ Chen-Yuan Lee, M.D. (李鎮源): co-discoverer of bungarotoxin; Redi Award, 1976; Former President, International Society on Toxinology

★ Tun-Hou Lee (李敦厚): Professor of Virology, Harvard School of Public Health

★ Ching-Hon Pui, M.D.: Chair, Department of Oncology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; ISI ''highly cited researcher'' in clinical medicine

★ Vivian E. Shih, M.D.: Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School

★ Ming T. Tsuang, M.D. (莊明哲): University Professor, University of California; Director, Institute of Behavioral Genomics, University of California, San Diego; Director, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics

★ Ching-Chung Wang (王正中): Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco

★ James C. Wang (王倬): discoverer of topoisomerase; Chair (1983-1985) and Professor (1977-2005), Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University

★ Tzyy Choou Wu, M.D.: Professor of Pathology, Professor of Oncology, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions; Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University

★ Jang Yen Wu (吳政彥): ISI ''highly cited researcher'' in neuroscience; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Senior Schmidt Fellow, Department of Biomedical Science, Florida Atlantic University

★ Fun-Sun Frank Yao, M.D.: Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medical College

Politics

★ Chang Chau-hsiung, M.D. (張昭雄): vice-chairman, People First Party, 2000-

★ Chang Po-ya (張博雅), M.P.H.: Minister of Health, R.O.C., 1979-1986

★ General Chen Chao-ming, M.B.A. (陳肇敏): Commander-in-Chief, R.O.C. Air Force, 1998-2002; Deputy Defense Minister, R.O.C., 2002-

★ Chen Ding-nan (陳定南): Minister of Justice, R.O.C., 2000-2005

★ Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁): Mayor of Taipei, 1994-1998; President of R.O.C., 2000-2008

★ Chen, Sisy (陳文茜): talk show host

★ Frank Hsieh (謝長廷): Mayor of Kaohsiung, 1998-2005; Premier of R.O.C., 2005-2006

★ Lee Teng-hui (李登輝): President of R.O.C., 1988-2000

★ Lien Chan (連戰): Vice President of R.O.C., 1996-2000

★ Lin Yang-kang (林洋港): President, Judicial Yuan, R.O.C., 1987-1994

★ Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄): chairman, Democratic Progressive Party, 1998-2000

★ Lu, Annette (呂秀蓮): Vice President of R.O.C., 2000-

★ Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九): Mayor of Taipei, 1998-2006; chairman, Kuomintang (lit. Chinese Nationalist Party), 2005-2007

★ Peng Ming-min (彭明敏): former Chair and Professor, Department of Political Science, NTU; political activist for Taiwan independence

★ Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌): Premier of R.O.C., 2006-

★ Shen Fu-hsiung, M.D. (沈富雄): Member, Legislative Yuan, R.O.C., 1992-2004; former Associate Professor, University of Washington, Seattle; former Director, Hemodialysis Unit, Seattle Veterans Administration Hospital

★ Wu Duen-yih (吳敦義): Mayor of Kaohsiung, 1990-1998; Member, Legislative Yuan, R.O.C., 2002- ;Seceretary-General of the Central Committee,Kuomintang (lit. Chinese Nationalist Party), 2007-

Entertainment

★ Alec Su (蘇有朋): majored in mechanical engineering (did not graduate)

★ Wakin Chau (周華健): majored in mathematics

★ Ng Tian Hann (黃天漢): majored in literature; now a film director in Malaysia

Notes

1. as Taihoku Imperial University
2. The name of the university is translated using Chinese word order. By English grammar rules, it is 'Taiwan National University'.

See also

★ National Taiwan University Hospital

★ List of universities in Taiwan

★ Education in the Republic of China

External links

★ National Taiwan University Official Website (Chinese)

★ National Taiwan University Official Website (English)