To promote international space science collaboration, on January 10, 2005, the National SPace Organization (NSPO) invited Dr. Chio-Zong (Frank) Cheng from the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University to become its Chief Scientist in charge of space science research and development. The position of Chief Scientist has been vacant since the ex-Chief Scientist, Dr. Lou-Chuan Lee, was promoted to serve as NSPO's Director General in January 2001 and then promoted to serve as the President of the National Applied Research Laboratories in June 2003. NSPO has been aggressively searching for a qualified person for the Chief Scientist position in both the domestic and international academic research communities. The position of Chief Scientist, a post that has remained vacant for the last four years, has finally been filled.
The new Chief Scientist was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1947. He graduated from the National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan in 1969 with a Bachelor degree in Physics. In 1975, he received a PhD degree in Physics from University of Iowa, USA. Since 1975 Dr. Cheng has worked at the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University and currently serves as the Head of Space Plasma Physics Division. Dr. Cheng has devoted close to thirty years of academic research in the fields of theoretical and computational plasma physics with applications in space (magnetospheric and solar) plasmas and laboratory plasmas of magnetic confinement fusion systems. He has made numerous distinguish and pioneering contributions in plasma physics and space sciences and has trained some of the brightest scientific minds. Dr. Cheng is the recipient of numerous academic awards, among them the 1996 Distinguished Research Fellow Award from the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University and the 2004 Excellence in Plasma Physics Research Award given by the American Physical Society. Through Dr. Cheng's expertise and international reputation in the academic research community, NSPO will pursue international collaborations in space science ventures. |
