CUHK
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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) presented a public lecture by Prof. Ovid J. L. Tzeng, Chancellor of the University System of Taiwan and Academician of Academia Sinica, on “Uplifting Higher Education in Taiwan: Excellence with a Soul” today (20 February) on campus. About 100 guests attended the lecture, including CUHK staff and students, and representatives from various academic institutions.

Drawing reference from the critical analysis of undergraduate education at Harvard University in Excellence Without a Soul by Prof. Harry Lewis, former dean of Harvard College, Prof. Tzeng drew on the experience of Taiwan and enlightened the audience with the crucial elements for lifting higher education to achieve excellence with vision in the lecture.

A respected psychologist recognized for his work in memory, psycholinguistics and cognitive neuropsychology, Prof. Tzeng is known particularly for his extensive analysis of reading behaviours across different writing systems. Three of his papers were published in Nature between 1976 and 1979 — considered an honour in the field of psychology — for research on the cognitive neuropsychology of Chinese language processing. Prof. Tzeng has had a distinguished professional career that includes serving as Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley; Visiting Associate Professor at the Haskins Laboratories and Yale University; Visiting Scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego; and Minister of Education in Taiwan. Prior to the Chancellorship at the University System of Taiwan in November 2006, Prof. Tzeng was the Vice President of Academia Sinica in Taiwan between 2002 and 2006. He is also the author of over 100 scientific papers and a consulting editor for many journals.

Since 1994, Prof. Tzeng has been a member of Academia Sinica and devoted himself to cognitive neuroscientific studies of memory and language. He was the first psychologist from Taiwan to be honoured as a Fellow of the prestigious Association for Psychological Science.