by Chien-Hui Chen (陳千惠) Translatied by Bruce Stewart  The winner of many awards for his outstanding performance in polymer physics research, Professor Hsin-Lung Chen of National Tsing Hua University’s Department of Chemical Engineering has also received the University’s highest honor for his outstanding teaching on three occasions. In 2008, Professor Chen was appointed Chair Professor. He considers these achievements to be the result of hard work (as opposed to natural talent) as well as a measure of good luck.

 Having for a long time been devoted to basic research, Professor Hsin-Lung Chen has in recent years worked together with his department colleagues Professors Show-An Chen and Hsing-Wen Sung in the development of photovoltaic- and biomedical-related materials, using “small angle scattering” techniques to detect these materials’ nanostructures, and engaging in research on light-emitting diode process controls and gene-therapy vector materials. Their findings have already been recognized at the highest levels. 

 Not only has Professor Chen done excellent research, but he has also devoted every effort to teaching. “To teach in school is what I aspire to do,” he says. Professor Chen points out that for long he has held fast to the attitude of “regarding students as friends, and being patient with students.” Although he has worked hard to shorten the distance between himself and the students, he believes that “establishing and adhering to principles” is essential. He asks students to maintain an attitude of respect and responsibility as they learn. By conducting himself with friendliness, while being strict in his teaching, Professor Chen has received Tsing Hua’s Outstanding Teacher Award on three occasions, a rare achievement indeed. 

 Besides teaching, Professor Chen also has a great deal of concern for the lives of his students outside class. He considers it to be a great blessing to be able to teach at NTHU. In addition to teaching the students, Professor Chen based on his own personal experiences guides students as they face emotional and other difficulties in life: “I am convinced that the cause and effect relationship conforms to scientific principles,”he says. By treating people from this point of view, many problems can be both naturally and quickly resolved. 

 “For me to be able to have today, I have been really fortunate.” Professor Chen said that because he failed the Joint College Entrance Examination, he attended the then so-called Ming Chi Institute of Technology. It was, however, because of that that he discovered that he was interested in polymer physics. Based on a recommendation by his teachers, he applied to graduate school in the U.S., thereby becoming the first person from Taiwan to apply to the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts. Competing against excellent students and feeling under tremendous pressure, Professor Chen passed the qualifying exam, and went on to later receive his doctorate. This was his first good fortune.

 When he returned to Taiwan during the economic recession that followed the war in the Persian Gulf, teaching positions were hard to find. Based on a friend’s suggestion, Professor Chen wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Formosa Plastics Group, Mr. Wang Yung-Ching, and was offered a teaching post in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Chang Gung University. This was his second good fortune. Professor Chen taught at Chang Gung for three years, but felt that his work there did not closely match his own research aspirations. He thereupon applied to the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsing Hua University and was accepted. This was his third good fortune.

 Professor Hsin-Lung Chen always remembers the question that Professor Yu-Der Lee asked him at the interview: “You know that Tsing Hua University’s Department of Chemical Engineering is the gold standard – do you believe that you can enable this department to continue to remain at the forefront?” Professor Chen has kept this sentence continually in his heart and it has as a result become one of the motivations for his hard work. In 2010, Professor Chen was awarded the Polymer Society’s prize for outstanding polymer research, and it was Professor Lee who nominated him. “I think Professor Lee has probably affirmed me,” he said with a chuckle.