US, Taiwan labs join to chase a new target

TAINAN, TAIWAN: Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and America's Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), which have enjoyed close collaborative ties for years, are planning to jointly compete for an International Research-Intensive Centers for Excellence (I-RiCE) center on nanocarbon technology.

"We anticipate the first I-RiCE proposal between Taiwanese universities and ANL will be led by NCKU," said Dr. Saw W. Hla from ANL at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop this month.

"For the I-RiCE, the faculty from both ANL and NCKU tried to put together proposals last year that weren't successful," said Hla. "So we're very optimistic in terms of the result of this workshop leading to a very successful I-RiCE proposal."

Dr. Yon-Hua Tzeng, dean of College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, NCKU, said, "This workshop is not a conventional workshop; it's more like a brainstorming workshop. The main purpose of the joint efforts is to come up with some high impact subject related to carbon technology."

Dr. Weng-Sing Hwang, vice president for Office of Research and Development, NCKU, on behalf of NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung, welcomed the partners from ANL. "We're very excited that this workshop brings the colleagues from America and Taiwan around and it will further enhance our collaboration," he said.

In response, Hla said, "We're very excited about the two-day workshop and we want to thank all of you for hosting and look forward to a very productive workshop, and a very successful program which will expand the cooperation that we have with NCKU."

"The laboratory signed an MOU with the university about 4 years ago," said Hla, "and ANL as one of the U.S. Department of Energy's oldest and largest national laboratories for science and engineering research may have more relationship with universities in Taiwan than any other countries."

"This collaborated project is critical because it will bring the scientists from the lab into the market place," according to Dr. Orlando H. Auciello.