Singapore: This year, five people from the life sciences division have been given the Academia Sinica Research Awards for Junior Investigators in Taiwan. The award recognizes scholars early in their careers at the national level and is perceived as a great honor in the country.

The recipients of the award this year are Dr Hsei-Wei Wang, professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Yang-Ming University; Dr Chao-Wen Wang, associate research fellow at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica; Dr Nei-Li Chan, associate professor, Graduate Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Taiwan University; Dr Chung-Yi Wu, associate research fellow at Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica; and Dr Tsung-Lin Yang, assistant professor at Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University.

The awards are given in three main categories and this year a total of 166 applications were received, 39 of which were from the life sciences division.

The awards were given at a ceremony hosted by Dr Chi-Huey Wong, president, Academia Sinica. During the ceremony, winners briefly presented their winning publications.

The awardees will receive a certificate and a cash prize of NT$200,000 (approximately $6,668). Additionally, they also received NT$300,000 (approximately $10,000) for research expenditures to be used within two years following the receipt of the award.