Former Health Minister Chen to be awarded French order

The French Institute in Taipei announced yesterday that it will award former Health Minister Chen Chien-jen the insignia of Officer of the Order of the Academic Palms in recognition of his excellence in research in the field of genomics and molecular epidemiology. According to a French Institute in Taipei press release, Patrick Bonneville, the top French representative to Taiwan, will hold an award ceremony on Oct. 1 at his residence in Taipei to present the award to Chen, who is now a member of the Academia Sinica. According to the French institute, the French Ministry of Education on Feb. 26 decreed that Chen would receive the top honor for academics because of his academic achievements and his contributions to strengthening scientific and technological relations between France and Taiwan, especially when Chen headed the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan. "Thanks to his dynamism and his personal involvement, France is now ranked as the second scientific partner of Taiwan in terms of the number of joint research projects, following the United States,” the press release said.