In recognition of his eminent performance in the area of geosciences, the Geological Society of America elected Professor Yue-Gau Chen of NTU's Department of Geosciences as one of its fellows in May. Of the 69 fellows elected by GSA this year, Professor Chen is the only scholar from Asia, a hard-won honor lending proof that NTU's research in geosciences has reached international standards!!

Professor Chen's eminence in research lies in "coastal environmental change and sea-level change," "carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotopic analysis on environmental study," "age determination of quaternary strata," and "geomorphology and neotectonics." In order to probe in-depth the active tectonics of Southeast Asia, Professor Chen recently participated in the "Outland Seismic Watch Network Project". This project, in addition to being able to observe seismic activities in the South China Sea on a real time basis, also allows researchers to participate in large-scale tectonic and seismic studies. It laid the Vietnam broadband seismic network, which is a trailblazer in national earthquake studies. The purpose of the project is to establish a Taiwan-led cross-national seismic observation network in the South China Sea, providing first-hand data for domestic scientists to study and evaluate the geomorphology and natural resources of the South China Sea region, and at the same time offering monitoring of earthquake and tsunami activities to the neighboring countries.

In view of Professor Yue-Gau Chen's outstanding research performance and academic contributions, Professor John Suppe, an academician of the American National Academy of Science, wrote in his commentary: "Yue-Gau Chen is the leading researcher and promoter of active tectonics in Taiwan, post 1999 Chi-chi earthquake. Also, he facilitated numerous research collaborations between Taiwan geologists and leading U.S., researchers, producing internationally important results and raise up a new generation of Taiwan scientists skilled in active tectonics and earthquake geology!!"