Chen Wen-tsuen (; born 27 May 1948) is an ethnic 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 ...

, a distinguished research fellow at the

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

and a lifelong national chair of the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

, Taiwan. From 2006 to 2010, he was the president of the

National Tsing Hua University National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) is a public research university in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was first founded in Beijing. After the Chinese Civil War, president Mei Yiqi and other academics relocated with the retreating Nationalist government to ...

, a premier research university in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Early life

Chen received his B.Sc. degree (1970) in nuclear engineering at the

, and his M.Sc. degree (1973) and Ph.D. degree (1976) in electrical engineering and computer sciences at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He has been with the National Tsing Hua University since 1976 when there were no computer, communication, and IC industries in

. He has since witnessed and contributed to its development from an agrarian economy to a world center for ICT technologies and products.

Career

Chen started his academic career as a faculty member of the computer science program of the Institute of Applied Mathematics of

. He helped found the Department of Computer Science of the university in 1977. He has also helped develop the

software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

program of the

Institute for Information Industry The Institute for Information Industry (III; zh, c=資訊工業策進會, p=Zīxùn Gōngyè Cèjìnhuì, abbreviated zh, c=資策會, p=Zīcèhuì) was established in 1979 as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to support the communication ...

, a non-governmental organization for promoting information industry in

, since its founding in 1979. In early 1980s, Chen established his computer network laboratory and was one of the pioneering computer network researchers in Taiwan. Chen served as the chairman of the Department of Computer Science of National Tsing Hua University from 1983 until 1988. From 1988 for four years, he was a science and technology advisor to the

and helped establish the Taiwan Academic Network (TANet), the first

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

in Taiwan. From 1992 to 1996, he was on leave from National Tsing Hua University to serve as the director of the Advisory Office of Ministry of Education to advise on education policy and improve higher education in Taiwan. Chen founded the Computer and Communication Research Center of the university in 1994 and served as its founding director for 10 years. He also founded the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1998 and served as its founding dean for 6 years. From 2003 to 2006, he was the vice chancellor (research) of the

University System of Taiwan The University System of Taiwan (UST; ) is a university alliance in Taiwan. The alliance was officially established in 2008 with the approval from the Ministry of Education. There are 4 member institutions in the alliance: National Tsing Hua Un ...

, a university alliance of four top research universities in northern Taiwan. In February 2006, Chen was appointed as president of the National Tsing Hua University. During his 4-year term of presidency, the university was noted for initiating the "Project Thousand Points of Light" ( 繁星計畫) university entrance program, which was enthusiastically endorsed and adopted by the Ministry of Education, and launching the

Tsing Hua College Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211 ...

(清華學院]), a residential college for undergraduate education, the first of its kind in Taiwan. Since August 2006, he had been a distinguished chair professor of the university. In 2007 Chen attended an

Association of East Asian Research Universities The Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) is an East Asian organisation comprising 19 research universities. It was established in January 1996 at the suggestion of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The purpose of ...

Board of Directors meeting and the same year he visited Japan along with Professors Chungmin Chen and Mao Jiun Wang. Also education and research of the university was significantly improved and well recognized internationally. In 2010, the

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

put National Tsing Hua University 107th in the world, advanced from 343rd in 2006. In 2008 Chen met with Vice President Chang Shih-Lin and together they held a press conference with

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...

Essential Science Indicators. In March 2012 he joined the

as a distinguished research fellow of the Institute of Information Science. Besides his contributions to education, Chen has also contributed to advancement of industrial technologies in Taiwan by serving as consultant and advisor in various levels of

Taiwan government The Government of the Republic of China is the national authority whose actual-controlled territory consists of main island of Taiwan (Formosa), Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other island groups, collectively known as ''Taiwan Area'' or ''Fr ...

and industrial research organizations including

Ministry of Economic Affairs A Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs, or Department of Commerce is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the economy or economic policy. List Examples of such mi ...

, and

Industrial Technology Research Institute The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI; ) is a technology research and development institution in Taiwan. It was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hsinchu, Hsinchu City, Taiwan, with branch offices in the United States, U.S., ...

. From 1990 for 14 years, he served as co-chairman and chairman of the technical evaluation committee of the industrial technology research grants program of Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is recognized as one of the most successful programs in advancing industrial technologies in Taiwan. From July 2006 for 4 years, he was a science and technology advisor to

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive (government), executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Under the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, amended constitution, the head of the Execut ...

of Taiwan. Starting in January 2011, he is the program director of the National Program for Intelligent Electronics of the

National Science Council The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC; ) is a statutory agency of Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) for the promotion and funding of academic research, development of science and technology and science parks. NSTC is ...

, aiming at developing advanced and innovative industrial technologies for bio-medical, green, automotive, and ICT electronics.

Research

Chen's early research work was on

. His research results have been used in an automated

software testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the Quality (business), quality of software and the risk of its failure to a User (computin ...

system designed for

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 ...

of United States. Chen pioneered the design of computer networks and parallel processing systems in early 1980s. He designed the first

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

and the first parallel processing system with its

parallel processor Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different for ...

chips in

. From 2000 for eight years, Chen was the principal investigator of a project under the Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities, jointly sponsored by the

and the

, leading a team of researchers from

and

National Chiao Tung University National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) was a public research university in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Established in 1896 as Nanyang Public School by an imperial edict of the Guangxu Emperor, it was one of China's leading universities. After the Chinese ...

to research on broadband

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping Data (computing), data into short messages in fixed format, i.e. ''network packet, packets,'' that are transmitted over a digital Telecommunications network, network. Packets consi ...

networks, heterogeneous

wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking allows homes, telecommunications networks, and business installations to avoid the costly process of introducing cables int ...

s, and advanced

applications. Chen's major contributions to parallel processing are on investigation of capability of parallel systems and proposing

parallel algorithm In computer science, a parallel algorithm, as opposed to a traditional serial algorithm, is an algorithm which can do multiple operations in a given time. It has been a tradition of computer science to describe serial algorithms in abstract mach ...

s of fundamental importance. In computer networking, he has done pioneering works on secure broadcasting, design of broadband switches, and quality-of-service techniques in

cellular network A cellular network or mobile network is a telecommunications network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless network, wireless and the network is distributed over land areas called ''cells'', each served by at least one fixed-locatio ...

s. He received numerous awards for his achievements in computer networking and parallel processing research, including Outstanding Research Awards of

, the prestigious Academic Award and National Chair of Ministry of Education, the Technical Achievement Award and Taylor L. Booth Education Award of

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

. Chen has been an editor and Editor-in-Chief of the ''Journal of Information Science and Engineering'' of the

. He is the founding General Chair of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems and the General Chair of 2000 IEEE

International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems The International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS) is the oldest conference in the field of distributed computing systems in the world. It was launched by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Distributed Processing ...

among others. He is a Fellow Member of the

for contribution to software engineering and parallel processing systems design and a Fellow of the Chinese Society for Management of Technology.

Awards and honors

*Distinguished Computer Professionals Award,

, 1984 *Distinguished Visitor (local computer networks),

, 1984–1985 *

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...

Technology Innovation Award,

Academics and Culture Foundation, 1989 *Outstanding Research Awards,

, 1990, 1992, 1994 *Distinguished Visitor (broadband communications networks),

, 1994–1997 *IEEE Fellow, 1994 *Academic Award in Engineering,

, 1994 *Outstanding Scholarship Chair, Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship, 1996–2001 *Technical Achievement Award,

, 1999 * Pan Wen Yuan Outstanding Research Award, Pan Wen Yuan Foundation, 2000 * National Chair,

, 2001–2004 *Outstanding Research Fellow Award,

, 2002 *Medal of Honor in Information Sciences, Institute of Information and Computing Machinery ROC, 2003 *Tsing Hua Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences,

, 2003 *Distinguished Visitor (wireless networks),

, 2004–2006 *Outstanding Contribution Award, Taiwan IC Design Society, 2004 *Fellow, Chinese Society for Management of Technology, 2004 * Lifelong National Chair,

, 2004 *Distinguished Alumnus Award in Computer Sciences and Engineering,

, 2006 *Tsing Hua Distinguished Chair Professor,

, 2006 *C. V. Ramamoorthy Distinguished Scholar Award, Society for Design and Process Science, 2008 *Outstanding Leadership Award,

, 2010 *Eminent Researcher,

National Research Council Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...

, 2010 *Taylor L. Booth Education Award,

, 2011

References

External links

Wen-Tsuen Chen's Home page in Academia SinicaHome page of National Tsing Hua University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Wen-Tsuen 1948 births Living people Taiwanese computer scientists Fellows of the IEEE National Tsing Hua University alumni UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Scientists from Taichung Presidents of National Tsing Hua University