Kao Cheng-yan (; born October 3, 1948) is a Taiwanese

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and activist who is founding chair of the

Green Party Taiwan Green Party Taiwan is a political party in Taiwan established on 25 January 1996. Although the party is sympathetic to Taiwanese nationalism and shares a number of centre-left positions with the Pan-Green Coalition, the party emphasizes campai ...

and a member of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union. Professionally, Kuo is a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

Early life and education

Kao was born in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

. His father was the owner of a Taipei factory. After graduating from

Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School (CKHS; ), also historically known as Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, is a public high school for boys located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. The school was established in 1898 during the earl ...

in 1967, he studied mathematics as an undergraduate at

and received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(B.S.) in mathematics in 1971. He then completed graduate studies in the United States, where he earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

(M.S.) in

in 1976, a second M.S. degree in

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

in 1978, and his Ph.D. in computer science in 1981, all from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

Early career

After receiving his doctorate, Kao worked for

Ford Aerospace Ford Aerospace was the aerospace and defense division of Ford Motor Company. It was based in Dearborn, Michigan and was active from 1956 (originally as Philco and then Philco Ford) through 1990, when it was sold to the Loral Corporation. Major di ...

Unisys Unisys Corporation is a global technology solutions company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The company provides cloud, AI, digital workplace, logistics, and enterprise computing services. History Founding Unis ...

, and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

from 1980 to 1989. During this period, he received a position at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Political career

He was a

Taiwan independence Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of Chi ...

activist during his student years in the United States. He ran for the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan () is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for four-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a ...

on a Green Party ticket in 1998 and 2001 but failed to gain a seat. In the 2004 ROC referendum, he debated DPP Legislator

You Ching You Ching (; born 20 March 1942) is a Taiwanese diplomat who served as the Taiwanese representative to Germany from 2007 to 2008. Early life and education Born in Kaohsiung, You earned a bachelor's degree in law from the National Chengchi Unive ...

. In November 2019, Kao was ranked second on Green Party Taiwan's party list of legislative candidates contesting the 2020 elections. He opposes the completion of the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant, leading the campaign to gather more than 120,000 signatures in order to add a referendum to the national ballot. His opposition to nuclear power dates back to 1979.

References

Selected works

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kao, Cheng-yan Taiwan independence activists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Taiwanese environmentalists Taiwanese computer scientists Academic staff of the National Taiwan University Taiwanese bioinformaticians