|
Yuan Tseh Lee (Chinese:
李遠哲 Pinyin: Lǐ Yuǎnzhé, Wade-Giles: Li³ Yüan³-che²) (born November 19,
1936) is a famous chemist. He was the first
Taiwanese-born Nobel Prize
laureate, who, along with with the Hungarian-Canadian John C.
Polanyi and American Dudley R. Herschbach won the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 "for their contributions to the dynamics of chemical
elementary processes." Lee's particular work was on crossed molecular beams further towards its use for general reactions, a
method for the study of important reactions for relatively large molecules. Since January 15, 1994, Lee has been the President of the Academia Sinica of the Republic of China.
Of Fujianese ancestry (specifically, Rongqiao Village (榕橋村),
Nan'an County (南安縣), Quanzhou City), Lee was born in Hsinchu City in northern Taiwan to Li
Tze-fan (李澤藩 Lǐ Zéfán), an accomplished Hsinchu-born artist,
and Ts'ai P'ei (蔡配 Cài Péi), an elementary school
teacher from Wuchi Township (梧棲鎮), Taichung County. Lee played on the baseball and ping-pong teams of Hsinchu Elementary School (新竹國小), and later studied
at the Hsinchu Senior High School (竹中), where he played tennis and
trombone. Due to his achievements in high school, he entered National Taiwan University without taking the entrance examination and
earned a B.S. in 1959. He earned a M.S. at National Tsing Hua University in 1961 and
Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1965.
In February 1967, he started working with Dudley Herschbach at
Harvard University on reactions between hydrogen atoms and diatomic alkali molecules and
the construction of a universal crossed molecular beams apparatus. In 1974, he returned to Berkeley as professor of chemistry and
principal investigator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, becoming an American citizen the same year. At
Berkeley, Lee retains the title of Professor of the Graduate School Emeritus. He is also University Professor Emeritus of the
University of California system.
Yuan T. Lee played an important role during the 2000 ROC Presidential election. On the last week of the election he announced his support
for the candidacy of Chen Shui-bian who subsequently won a narrow
victory over James Soong. Chen nominated Lee to become Premier, but Lee declined after
deliberating for a few days.
Lee's endorsement of Chen was not without controversy. Lee's participation in politics was verbally attacked by novelist
Li Ao, a presidential candidate during the aforementioned 2000 election. Li criticized
Lee as "filled with hypocrisy" (「充滿偽善」)
by claiming to be a scholar who pursues neutrality and truth, yet ignoring the black gold activity, which Li claims that Chen
Shui-bian engaged in as the mayor of Taipei. Later on, Li Ao also published a book
entitled The True Face of Yuan Tseh Lee(李远哲的真面目), denouncing Lee to be
a "scholar-tyrant" and oppressing academic freedom.
Li's opinion is in the minority, however. In general, the Taiwanese people are quite proud of their sole Nobelist. Lee has
been the President of the Academia Sinica since 1994 and renounced his American citizenship to take the post. During his tenure,
Lee has worked tirelessly to create new research institutes, advance scientific research within Taiwan, and to recruit and
cultivate top scholars for the Academic Sinica.
At the request of President Chen, Lee was Chinese Taipei's
representative in the 2002 APEC leaders' summit in Mexico. (Presidents of
the Republic of China have been barred from joining the APEC summits because of objections from the People's Republic of China.) Lee represented
President Chen again in 2003's APEC summit in Thailand. In January 2004, he and
industrial tycoon Wang Yung-ching and theatre director Lin Hwai-min issued a joint statement
asking both Chen Shui-bian and Lien Chan to "drop hatred and extreme behavior and
resort to honesty."
This, and other critical statements of the President, led to speculation that he would not back Chen again in the 2004 elections until he issued a statement
of support for the DPP on March 17, 3 days before polls opened. In the news, this endorsement was overshadowed by the dispute DPP
legislator Shen Fuhsiung and
first lady Wu Shuchen was in a
dispute over whether or not Shen had introduced fugitive Chen Haohsiang to Wu. When ask to comment about the endorsement, opposition candidate Lien Chan remarked (in English) So what?.
With Bernice Wu Chin-li (吳錦麗 Wú Jǐnlì), whom Lee has known since elementary school, he has 3
children: Ted (news broadcasting personnel), Sidney (doctor), and Charlotte (sociologist).
Lee was one of the four Nobelists who established the Wu
Chien-Shiung Foundation. In addition to the Nobel Prize, his awards and distinctions include Sloan Fellow (1969); Fellow of American Academy of Arts and
Sciences (1975); Fellow Am. Phys. Soc. (1976); Guggenheim
Fellow (1977); Member National Academy of
Sciences (1979); Member Academia Sinica (1980); E.O. Lawrence Award (1981); Miller Professor, Berkeley (1981); Fairchild
Distinguished Scholar (1983); Harrison Howe Award (1983); Peter Debye Award (1986); National Medal of Science (1986).
External links
|