In recognition of their academic excellence, the Royal Society of Chemistry elected NTU Department of Chemistry professors Shie-Ming Peng and Pi-Tai Chou to its fellowship last June.

The Royal Society of UK confers fellowship upon chemical researchers who have made outstanding contributions to developmental or applied chemistry, chemical professions, or chemical management and guidance. This year only three professors from Taiwan received this special honor, including Professor Shie-Ming Peng and Professor Pi-tai Chou from NTU's Department of Chemistry (the other one is Tsing Hua University's Professor Chien Hong Cheng). NTU's Department of Chemistry obtained recognition from the international chemical circles by winning this laurel.

Professor Shie-Ming Peng graduated from NTU's Department of Chemistry in 1970. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1975, and returned to teach at NTU's Department of chemistry in 1976. Ever since 1980 he has been a full professor at NTU, and starting from 1982 he was jointly hired by NTU and Academia Sinica. From 1985 to 1987 he was the acting Director of the Institute of Chemistry of Academia Sinica, from 1987 to 1990 he was the Head of the Department of Chemistry of NTU. From 1999 to 2002 he served as Vice President of NTU. From 2006 to 2008 he served as the Director of the Chemistry Center of the National Science Council. At present he is a full time professor at NTU's Department of Chemistry while serving as a senior researcher at Academia Sinica's Institute of Chemistry.

Professor Peng's expertise lies in inorganic chemistry and crystallography. His research interests include: synthesis and characterization of metal complexes which have delocalized ground states and possess unusual redox, spectroscopic, magnetic and structural properties such as o-quinonedimine, diimini-succinonitrile, and fully conjugated macr; studies of d10 metal clusters e.g. metal clusters of sulfonylamido, polyphosphino, and acetylido bridged ligands; studies of oligonuclear metal—multiple bond and molecular metal wire; using chemical absorption for the formation of mixed assembled monolayer film and surface STM-c-AFM technology. Professor Peng presided over the first phase of Excellence Program and spearheaded the research on nano-materials, now he is in charge of the navigating program.

In his career Professor Peng has received many academic awards, including National Science Council's Outstanding Research Award, Special Research Fellow Award from the National Science Council, Zhongshan Academic Award, Academic Award from the Chinese Chemical Society, the Jin-Dui Hou Honor Award, the Y.Z. Hsu Nano-technology Chair Professorship Award, Ministry of Education Academic Award, Ministry of Education National Chair Professorship Award, NTU Chair Professorship Award, NTU Tenured Professor by Special Appointment, Chemistry Award from the Third World Academy of Sciences, Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society Award, Taiwan/France Science & Technology Award, etc. He was elected academician of Academia Sinica in 1998, and became a fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 2004. Now, on top of all these, he leaps to glory again by becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Pi-tai Chou graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Catholic Fu-Jen University in 1980. He earned his doctoral degree from Florida State University in 1984. From 1985 to 1987 he did his post doctoral research at UC Berkeley, and from 1987-1994 he served as assistant professor at University of Southern Carolina. He returned to Taiwan in 1994 to teach at National Chung Cheng University, and served as the Head of the Chemistry Department from 1997 to 1999. In 2001 he transferred to National Taiwan University. Now he is the incumbent Head of the Chemistry Department.

Professor Chou's expertise lies in photovoltaic materials and photophysics of organic materials. His research interests include: proton/electron transfer of bio-organic molecules; near-infrared spectroscopy of molecular dynamics, molecular recognition, synthesis and application; ultra-fast photophysics and photochemistry; synthesis/characterization, relaxation dynamics and applications of II-V semiconductor nanomaterials; solar-energy related research; electro-luminescent materials (OLEDS), etc. Although Professor Chou's research interests are quite diversified, they are all based on photo-electrical research and geared toward actual applications. He is noted for his creative and innovative contributions to every research area that he is involved with; hence he has acquired an important position in international scientific research.

Professor Chou's outstanding academic performance has won him many honors in the past, including the Outstanding Research Award from the National Science Council, the Special Research Fellow Award from the National Science Council, the Jing-Dui Ho Honor Award, the Academic Award from the Ministry of Education, the National Chair Professorship Award from the Ministry of Education, NTU's Chair Professorship Award, NTU's Tenured Professor by Special Appointment, etc. and the Royal Society of Chemistry fellowship to boot.

Within the last year many faculty members of the Department of Chemistry have won important awards, which include (as have been previously reported) Dr. Yuan-Tseh Lee became the president of ICSU (International Council for Science), Professor Yu Wang won the "Outstanding Women in Science" Award, Professor Jim-Min Fang won the Tien-Te Lee Biomedical Foundation's Science and Technology Award, and Professor Shie-Ming Peng and Professor Pi-Tai Chou being elected to Royal Society of Chemistry's fellowship as currently reported. In addition, Professor Yu Wang won the Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society's Outstanding Achievement Award, Professor Chun-Hsien Chen and Professor Sheng-Hsien Chiu won the Outstanding Research Award from the National Science Council, and Associate Professor Sheng-Hsien Chiu won the Y.Z. Hsu Scientific Paper Award and the Outstanding Young Chemistry Scholar Award from the Asian Chemical Union. That the faculty and alumni of NTU's Department of Chemistry have been able to win so many awards during the past few years goes to show that the efforts and devotion of the Department have received both domestic and international recognition. When NTU is actively embarking on a path to become one of the top universities in the world, it stands to reason that the Department of Chemistry should be fully supported by the university administration, so that the performance of its faculty can scale new heights.