Taiwanese academic Shih Chih-jen (center)/photo courtesy of Taiwan's representative office in Switzerland
Brussels, Nov. 29 (CNA) Taiwanese academic Shih Chih-jen has become the first Asian to receive Switzerland's most prestigious chemistry award, Taiwan's representative office in the European country said Wednesday.
Shih, an assistant professor at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, was awarded the Ruzicka-Preis on Tuesday for his research and development of the highest purest form of the green light-emitting diode, the office said.
The Ruzicka-Preis is an annual prize awarded to a researcher under the age of 40 for an outstanding piece of published work in the field of chemistry, carried out in Switzerland or by a Swiss researcher abroad, according to ETH Zurich's website.
The award was named after ETH Zurich Professor Leopold Ruzicka, the 1939 winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Shih is a graduate of National Taiwan University, who went on to earn a doctoral degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. and complete his postdoctoral research at Stanford University.
He took up a teaching position at ETH Zurich in May 2015 and is now the first Asian recipient of the Ruzicka-Preis.
His research and development of the highest purest form of the green light-emitting diode will improve the screen quality of televisions, mobile phones and monitors, according to the prize committee.
Klement Ruey-sheng Gu, Taiwan's representative to Switzerland, attended the award ceremony and congratulated Shih for his outstanding achievement in the field of chemistry.
