For his important contribution to magnetic theory and to the self-spin transfer algorithm model, Professor Ching-Ray Chang of the Physics Department was elected to become a fellow of the American Physical Society. This year, his erudition was again confirmed by the Executive committee of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers). In a meeting of the Executive Committee held on November 22nd, all committee members unanimously passed a resolution to elect Professor Chang to 2011 IEEE fellowship, in recognition of Professor Chang’s important contributions to micro-magnetic calculation and spintronics transfer algorithms. For Taiwan’s scientists, those who can be an APS fellow and an IEEE fellow at the same time are hardly a handful. Especially worth mentioning is the fact that all Professor Chang’s international recognition stemmed from his years of devotion to scientific research in Taiwan. That Taiwan enjoys a certain degree of visibility internationally in the area of micro-magnetic and spintronics model transfer algorithm is primarily attributable to Professor Chang’s outstanding research efforts.

IEEE is the largest professional association in the world. It is dedicated to advancing the well-being of the human race, has 385,000 members in 160 countries, and occupies a leading position in all kinds of professional and technical fields, from aerospace systems, computer science, telecommunications to bio-medical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics products. At present, about 30% of all publications in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and computer science are done by IEEE. So far, IEEE has set more than 900 standards for the Electrical Engineering profession, and IEEE sponsors or co-sponsors more than 400 large scale technical seminars every year. Through a very rigorous process, IEEE selects less than 0.1% of the total number of scholars and experts who have made an unique innovative contribution to the industry, and award them the honor of an IEEE fellowship. Therefore, to be able to become an IEEE fellow is regarded as one of the top honors that an engineer can have. Professor Chang was elected to IEEE fellowship owing to his contributions to theoretical basic calculations, that makes him all the more commendable among all IEEE fellows.

After he returned to Taiwan in 1988, Professor Chang became engaged in the study of spintronics calculations. Because of his perseverance, Taiwan now is a force to be reckoned with in the fast-rising field of spintronics, and Professor Chang’s early pioneering work really had a lot to do with it. In recent years Professor Chang extensively developed the theoretical model for spintronics transfer and expanded his research to topological insulators. Because of the important work that he does in international related fields, a leading publishing company in particular invited him to become an associate editor for the “Spin” journal, which will be published next year as a magazine for this emerging field. Professor Chang is currently a trustee for the Asian Institute of Physics, Vice Chairman of the Asian Union of Magnetics, trustee for the Taiwan chapter of the International Union of Physics and Applied Physics, and he has been very concerned with the matters relating to women participating in scientific activities. Currently he is one of the few male members in the women physics team of IUPAP.

Professor Chang is also known for his administrative abilities. Every unit that he participated in changed qualitatively because of his participation. For instance, NTU’s Physics Department and the Department of International Cooperation of the National Science Council underwent significant change and improvement because he took charge. That the Department of Physics again becomes the top choice for high school students majoring in science, and that domestic scientific researchers actively participated in international cooperation, are related to Professor Chang’s enthusiastic services to a certain degree.