The papers published by six outstanding researchers from NCKU were rated as influential in their respective fields, reflecting the high academic standards of our teachers and our outstanding research results.
Highly cited researchers
The research of Professor Peter Chao-Yu Chen, from NCKU’s Department of Photonics, is in the field of emerging photovoltaic technologies. Professor Wei-Hsin Chen, of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, focuses on research into green energy and fuel, and is a pioneer in the international research of biomass energy torrefaction. Both scholars’ papers are highly quoted internationally and were placed on Clarivate Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list. Professor Wei-Hsin Chen has been on the list for three consecutive years since 2016.
Professor Peter Chao-Yu Chen, Department of Photonics
Peter Chao-Yu Chen’s research papers have received a very high number of citations for his contributions to the field of new generation solar cells (dye-sensitised or perovskite solar cells). According to statistics from the Web of Science database (as of December 2018), out of total 64 published journals papers and articles, he is cited 6,236 times, with 16 papers cited more than 100 times, an average citation per item of over 97 times, and a h-index of 26. In addition, Professor Chen has contributed 18 highly cited (top one per cent) papers between 2007 to 2018 based on the statistics of Elsevier’s SciVal database.
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Professor Wei-Hsin Chen, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Professor Wei-Xin Chen has published more than 130 Science Citation Index journals and articles since August 2013, and his published SCI papers have been cited around 6,000 times. His average number of citations is about 27 times per paper, with 14 highly cited papers, and a h-index of 42. The quantity and quality of his journals and articles in torrefaction research rank first in the world. The number of citations of his papers accounts for 10 per cent worldwide. In addition, his research into pulverised coal injection technology is jointly ranked at 19th in the world, while his research into palladium membranes is ranked 24th in the world. Other areas of study include water gas shift reaction, thermoelectric generators, and CO2 capture and utilisation.
Cancer cell research becomes first Taiwanese study to be recognised in the Best of the AACR Journals collection
Professor Shaw-Jenq Tsai (Category: Clinical Medicine)
Distinguished Professor, Department of Physiology
“Noncoding effects of circular RNA CCDC66 promote colon cancer growth and metastasis” is the fruit of four years of study conducted by Professor Shaw-Jenq Tsai’s team at NCKU’s Department of Physiology. The paper was recognised by the American Association for Cancer Research as the most cited original article on cancer research of 2017. Through comprehensive analysis of experimental and clinical data, Professor Tsai and his team proved that circular RNA indeed has biological functions and that its overexpression promotes the swift growth and metastasis of colon cancer cells. This is the first report regarding circular RNA’s function to be verified using animal testing and human specimens, which opens up a new horizon of study in delineating molecular mechanism of cancer pathogenesis and malignancy.
Solving the mystery of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia: NCKU research team confirms new risk factor WWOX
Professor Nan-Shan Chang, Institute of Molecular Medicine
As medical communities around the world strive to unlock the mystery behind Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, the US National Institutes of Health recently announced five new genes as risk factors for the disease. Among these, the WWOX gene was first discovered by a research team led by Professor Nan-Shan Chang, of NCKU’s Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Prior to the NIH’s announcement, Professor Chang’s team has been pioneering WWOX research in cancer and Alzhiemer’s disease for more than 19 years. His team and co-workers contribute to our understanding of the role of WWOX in limiting neurodegeneration. They have determined that reduction of WWOX protein in middle age, or aberrant accumulation of WWOX phosphorylation at serine 14 in the brain, leads to enhanced Alzheimer’s progression as one gets old. (bit.ly/Alheimersstudy).
High efficiency network topology system research awarded Best Conference Papers at international symposium
Professor Chi-Chuan Hwang, Department of Engineering Science
Supercomputers with an unimaginably fast computing speed mostly use the high-efficiency network topology system known as “fat-tree topology”. Professor Chi-Chuan Hwang, of NCKU’s Department of Engineering, and his team have recently developed a more efficient network topology system, named “equality topology”. By simulation, the team analysed the system’s efficiency and compared it with the current three-layer fat-tree topology. Using the same scale and equipment, the equality topology network calculating speed is more than 25 per cent faster. If the scale and equipment were larger than the three-layer fat tree, then even reaching level E calculating power (18 power of 10 per second), the calculation efficiency would still remain at the same level, which is where other topologies cannot compete. These breakthrough research results stood out from more than 200 papers at the Fourth IEEE International Symposium on Computer, Consumer and Control 2018 and were awarded Best Conference Papers.
