The Executive Yuan today announced that Wei Kuo-yen, geosciences professor at National Taiwan University (NTU), has been named minister of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). He will be taking over the position from Shen Shu-hung, who has resigned.
Wei graduated from the University of Rhode Island (U.S.A.) with a Ph.D. in oceanography, conducted post-doctoral research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and taught geology and geophysics as an assistant professor at Yale University. He also has experience in the public sector, having served as deputy minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, a former Cabinet-level agency, and chairperson at its counterpart division in the Taipei City Government. Apart from teaching at NTU since 1993, he is also an adjunct research fellow at the Academia Sinica.
The Executive Yuan commended Wei for his excellent academic and administrative credentials, reiterating that he has spent time in both the central and local governments and that his extensive studies span geology, oceanography, biogeochemical cycles, ecology and climatology. He and NTU atmospheric sciences professor Hsu Huang-hsung jointly teach introductory courses on earth systems and have written Global Change: An Introduction, the first university textbook on the subject ever published domestically. Wei is one of Taiwan's few outstanding researchers whose interdisciplinary research covers marine, geological, forestry as well as atmospheric fields, officials said.
As EPA minister, Wei is expected to use his expertise to enhance environmental protection efforts and help the agency transform into the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Executive Yuan stated.