北美洲台灣人教授協會年會特刊 2007
作者 NATPA
Welcome to NATPA 2007 Annual Conference
A message from Ray Y. Lin 林瑞陽, President
Dear NATPA Members, Respectable Speakers and Guests:
It is my greatest honor as the president to welcome you to the 2007 NATPA Annual Conference.
Your participation has already made this conference a success. Recently, it is suggested that the annual conference is a once a year homecoming event for NATPA members. I hope you enjoy every minute of this event and feel free to give us suggestions to make our homecoming better and better as we continue our growth through the years.
Taiwan is at a rather critical moment right now with two very important elections coming up: the legislator election and the presidential election. For Taiwan to become a normal country, Taiwanese must be in control at both elections. Inevitably, Chinese are putting up extreme influence to steer both elections. NATPA members must do all we can to help our beloved Taiwan to prevent Taiwan from becoming the victim of Chinese aggression. Such understanding leads us to focus on the theme for our annual conference this year to “Promote Taiwan National Identity and Give Back to Homeland Taiwan/’ We will address these issues through intensive presentations by many of our members and friends as well as panel discussions. We have a number of outstanding speakers including Dr. Robert Lai 賴義雄, who is one of our past presidents and is the 董事長 Chairman of the Board of Directors of Taiwan’s National Applied Research Laboratories, Prof. Mou Hsiung Chen 陳茂雄, Famous Writer in Taiwan and an Examination Yuan member, Dr. Ted Lau 劉聰德, Deputy Director General of Taiwan’s Science & Technology Policy Research and Information Center, Prof. C.K. Lin 林宗光, one of previous NATPA presidents, Prof. Liang Shing Fan 范良信, a long time Taiwanese movement leader in the US, Ms. 曾心儀, a famous writer in Taiwan and a first generation Taiwanese, Dr. Ching Pang Lee 李經邦, a fellow of AS ME who has received 147 US patents, and Dr. Andre Chang 張繼昭, author and expert on studying Laffayette scandal. Our discussion on Laffayette is timely since the Lafayette scandal discussion has resurfaced again in Taiwan recently. In memory of Dr. Milton Chen’s contribution to NATPA and Taiwan^ we have the honor of having Dr. Michael Tai 戴正德 to give a lecture on Taiwan’s National Identity. Dr. Tai is a dean at Chung San Medical University in Taiwan and was a good friend of Dr. Milton Chen. It is also my pleasure to report to you that in the last few days, Dr. Peng-Kuen (P.K.) Chiang 江鵬崑 has expressed his willingness to share with us his function at the post as the director of Science and Technology Division of TECO in Chicago. Some of you may have recognized his name and his brother, 江鵬堅. Since giving back to Taiwan is one of our focuses this year and many of us have been thinking about going back to Taiwan to contribute for either long term or short term, one of our panel discussion sessions will allow our experienced colleagues to share their experience with us and answer questions that you may have on opportunities to work in Taiwan.
We have a very special member among us today, Prof. Helen Lee. Prof. Lee is a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno. Although young, she has already received numerous recognitions and awards. You may find a list of them in our program book. Her efforts in promoting Taiwan^ well-being have set a standard for us all to follow. We should all be proud of being fellow members of her in the NATPA family. It is upon her suggestion that we treat the NATPA annual conference be a homecoming event of NATPA. The association is honored to present to her a Special Recognition Award.
The Young Scholars Program, initiated in 2004, provides travel funds to support Taiwanese and Taiwanese American graduate students and young scholars to participate in the NATPA Annual Conference. This year, eight talented students from all over the States were selected. Dr. C.P.
Yeh has been instrumental to put together this year’s young scholar’s program for us.
The post conference tour features Stephen Foster’s Musical in Kentucky, the Mammoth Cave National Park and the famous Air Force Museum. We all remember the music of “My Old Kentucky Home.” Stephen Foster musical houses the show on the America’s first great composer, Stephen Foster. The Mammoth Cave is the world longest known cave. We will tour the cave in the morning of June 25th, right after a nice hotel stay. The Taiwanese Association of Cincinnati will host those who participate in the post conference tour in the evening of June 25 at Taiwanese Presbytarian Church of Cincinnati. A Taiwan Night has been scheduled. In the morning of June 26, a tour to the Air Force Museum has been scheduled. On top of most airplanes ever existed since the Wright brother era, there is a special exhibition of Air Force One, the air plane for the US presidents, and many airplanes used in different wars and hence the war histories.
NATPA is functioned with teams of volunteers. Over the past few months, the team of the board of directors has made numerous decisions on issues that are critical to the growth of NATPA and benefit Taiwan. It would be impossible for me to recount every thing that the board of directors has done. I will report them in the upcoming NATPA newsletter. The team of a few past presidents of NATPA has provided valuable guides for the direction of NATPA. I strongly believe that we should encourage all our past presidents to come back to contribute to this family and help this family grow and remain strong.
I would like to thank members of the program committee, the conference committee, and all those who did not hesitate to contribute their time to ensure the success of the Conference. I also like to thank our ex-Presidents? Dr. Henry Wang and Dr. Ed Huang, who have constantly given me valuable advices, and our Vice President, Shitien Yang, who supports me without any reservation. If it is not for their constant supports and advices, the annual conference would have been impossible.
Special thanks are due to Taiwanese Association of Cincinnati (TAC) members. Although not a large organization, TAC has been recognized for her energy, creativity and love to Taiwan. TAC members have full heartily supported my serving NATPA. The feast at the Board of Directors meeting in October, 2006 and the Taiwan Night program during the post conference tour are hosted by TAC. It is because of hard working TAC members over the last many months that this NATPA annual conference becomes a reality. I can not conclude my report without expressing my sincere appreciation to my wife, Alice Lin, who has provided endless supports and encouragement on whatever I do over the last 35 years. It is particularly true whenever I feel frustrated that she has always been the one quietly fixing up the mess that I created, same for the last many busy months of NATPA Conference planning.
Print in 2007/06
Posted in 2015/12
