PREVIOUS AWARDS

2009 Applied Sciences
Academician I Chiu Liao

Academician I Chiu Liao's Personal Profiles

Dr. Liao was born in Tokyo, Japan on Nov. 4, 1936. He returned to Taiwan with his parents to settle down at the age of four.

After studying in his new hometown for primary, junior and senior high school, he joined the Division of Fishery Science, Dept. of Zoology, at the National Taiwan University, indeed a grand achievement since his initial examination score was sufficient to grant him admission. He went to University of Tokyo for his masters and doctoral courses at the Graduate School of Fisheries. In March 1968, he obtained his Ph.D. of Agriculture Science.

After his post-doctoral training, he immediately came back to Taiwan and started to work as a researcher under the Rockefeller Foundation Project in July 1968. He was among the first scholars to take his knowledge from abroad and use it to contribute to our mother country.

These scholars were highly welcomed and accepted if they decided to work in universities or Academia Sinica. He, in the reverse, chose the branch of Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute (TFRI) as a place to start his practical research work on aquaculture, although it was then a low third in ranking under the Provincial Government of Taiwan. His experience and the versatility of his work in applied science at TFRI from the very beginning until his retirement is truly an exceptional model of work by science pioneers.

At that time, the construction of the Tungkang Marine Laboratory was in progress, so upon his return he began his research at Tainan branch, TFRI. Even so, Dr. Liao overcame the difficulties and set a new record for breakthroughs on artificial propagation of grass prawn during his first four-months of work in Tainan. He then transferred to Tungkang Marine Laboratory and started to lead the research team on propagation of grey mullet. Once again, he accomplished another world-record in artificial propagation of this species. Then in 1978, he led an international team to again create a worldrecord, this time on milkfish propagation.