Liu Chao-han (; born 3 January 1939) is a radio engineer/scientist and an international leader in solar terrestrial physics and remote sensing research. He served as Vice President of the

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

from 2006 to 2011 after serving as President of National Central University for 12 years and as Chancellor of the

University System of Taiwan The University System of Taiwan (UST; ) is a research-led university alliance in Taiwan. List of institutions *National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) *National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) *National Central University (NCU) *National C ...

for 4 years. He is a Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, an Academician of the

and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Early life

Liu was born in Liuzhou,

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

on January 3, 1939, to Liu Guoyun (), a general in the Republic of China Armed Forces, and Zhong Wanfang (). He has five brothers, Liu Chao-Ning (), Liu Chao-Hua (), Liu Chao-Li (), Liu Chao-shiuan, and Liu Chao-Kai (). Liu earned a BsC from National Taiwan University in 1960. He went on to receive his PhD from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1965.

Career

He started his academic career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1965 where he taught Electrical Engineering for 25 years. He was promoted to full professor in 1974 and became professor emeritus in 1993. From 1981 to 1999, he played leadership roles in the Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics
SCOSTEP
of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), first as Scientific Secretary, and later as the President. He is one of the founding leaders of Taiwan's Space Program. Shortly after returning to Taiwan in 1990 and based on his earlier research, he proposed and guided the implementation of the Constellation Observation System for Meteorology Ionosphere & Climate, FORMOSAT III/COSMIC, in collaboration with University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

in the United States. From 2006 to 2020, the data collected by this system enabled the drastic improvement in the daily weather forecast. Almost all major weather centers around the world were using the data from FORMOSAT-III/COSMIC for their forecasting operations. In related work, Liu, in the 1980s together with his students, innovated a versatile and inexpensive technology known as "Computerized Ionosphere Tomography (CIT)" which was adopted for the remote sensing of the structure and dynamics of the ionospheres worldwide. Liu also established a VHF Radar system at National Central University to investigate the atmospheric waves and turbulence. Since the mid-1990's, he led a group of scientists with different disciplinary backgrounds to carry out global change and sustainability research in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, establishing Taiwan as a regional leader in this field internationally. During his presidency at the National Central University (1990-2002), he helped transform the university to become one of the top research universities in Taiwan. In 2003, he became the founding Chancellor of the

which has become a new model of collaboration among universities in the country.

Recognition

Liu is an Academican of the

(1998); an elected Member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World ( TWAS); and an International Member of the National Academy of Engineering (2012). He was awarded the Special Achievement Award from IEEE-

APS APS or Aps or aps or similar may refer to: Education * Abbottabad Public School * Adarsh Public School, a public school in New Delhi, India * Alamogordo Public Schools * Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico, US school district * Allendale Publ ...

(1968); elected a Fellow of the

(1981); the Brown Engineering Award Medal (1997); the Distinguished Alumni Award of National Taiwan University (2008) and the Horace Mann Medal (2011-2012). In 2019, National Central University named the No. 207603 asteroid discovered by the Lulin Observatory as "Liuchaohan" in his honor.

Personal life

Liu married Mong Tsuei Chu (). They have a daughter, Alice C.Y. Liu, and a son, Robert C.B. Liu.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Chao-han 1939 births Living people People from Hengyang Presidents of National Central University Members of Academia Sinica Academic staff of the National Taiwan University University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Academic staff of the National Central University National Taiwan University alumni Brown University School of Engineering alumni Fellow Members of the IEEE Foreign associates of the National Academy of Engineering Taiwanese people from Hunan TWAS fellows Scientists from Hunan