Twu Shiing-jer (; born 17 June 1951) is a Taiwanese epidemiologist, physician, and politician. He was the minister of the Department of Health from 2002 to 2003 and later served in the Legislative Yuan from 2008 to 2012. He was the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Chiayi City from 25 December 2014 to 25 December 2018.

Early life and education

Twu was born in Puzi,

Chiayi County Chiayi is a County (Taiwan), county in Taiwan. Located in Regions of Taiwan, southwestern Taiwan surrounding but not including Chiayi City, it is the sixth largest county in the island of Taiwan. Its major tourist destination is Alishan Natio ...

, to Tu Bing-rong, a mathematics teacher, and Tu Hou Cai. He has four brothers and sisters. In 1969, Twu graduated from National Chiayi Senior High School. After high school, Twu graduated from

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 ...

with a Bachelor of Medicine (B.M.) in 1976 and a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in 1978. He completed doctoral studies in the United States, earning his Ph.D. in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

in 1995 from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, under professors Roger Detels and Sander Greenland. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Does hepatitis B viral infection promote HIV-1 infection and the progression to AIDS?".

Health minister

Twu succeeded Lee Ming-liang as minister of the Department of Health on 1 September 2002. Diane Lee publicly accused him of sexually harassing ("ear-licking") a male restauranteur in October 2002, resulting in significant fallout, but Twu refused to resign; it was later revealed that he had been confused for another man. Lee apologized. However, in the wake of the SARS outbreak in Taiwan, he resigned on 16 May 2003.

Mayor of Chiayi City

2009 Chiayi City mayor election

Twu joined the 2009 Republic of China local elections for the position of Chiayi City mayor. The elections were held on 5 December 2009. He eventually lost to

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

candidate

Huang Min-hui Huang Ming-hui (; born 20 January 1959) is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese politician. She was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2005. Her tenure as vice chairperson of the Kuomintang (2008–16) overlapped with two terms as Mayor of C ...

2014 Chiayi City mayor election

Twu won a party primary held in March 2014, and was named the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...

candidate for the Chiayi City mayoralty. In September, Twu asked the voters to choose the best person, not the wealthiest, referring to politicians from

who were mostly backed by their huge assets and government resources to work with business conglomerates run by wealthy families to control local political factions and influence election outcomes. He ran his campaign under the slogan ''Bold leadership, Chuluo, heading up for Taiwan'' (). Chiayi was a part of Chuluo County until 1787 when it was renamed. Twu was elected as the Mayor of Chiayi City after winning the 2014 Chiayi City mayoralty election held on 29 November 2014.

2018 Chiayi City mayor election

References

External links

* {{authority control 1951 births Living people Members of the 7th Legislative Yuan Democratic Progressive Party Members of the Legislative Yuan Party List Members of the Legislative Yuan Mayors of Chiayi Ministers of health and welfare of Taiwan Taiwanese expatriates in the United States University of California, Los Angeles alumni National Taiwan University alumni