Togerther with National Sun Yat-Sen University（NSYSU）in Kaohsung, National Tsing Hua University（NTHU）is organizing the first Israel-Taiwan Life Science Conference, with the title “From Molecules to Medicine”. The Conference will be held December 8-13, 2013, in NTHU’s Hsinchu International Conference Hall in the new Macronix Learning Resource Center  and NSYSU’s Kaoshung campus.

Thirteen distinguished and active research life-scientists from Israel will be participating in this Conference, which include Ruth Arnon, President of the Israel Academy of Science, Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel laureate in chemistry from the Technion and Ada Yonath, 2009 Nobel laureate in chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

According to the Honorable Simona Halperin, Representative of Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei（ISECO,）who is supporting the formation and organization of this Conference, “there is no doubt that intellectual overlap of Israel and Taiwan is profound and widespread. I am very pleased that the leadership of National Tsing Hua University has a palpable understanding of the synergetic complementarity of the two scientific communities and has for the past several years established durable relations with their Israeli counterparts. I am confident that this Conference could be a watershed moment between the intellectual communities of both sides. Undoubtedly, it will be win-win for both.”

Echoing her enthusiam, Academician Lih J. Chen, President of NTHU, said that “I agreed utterly with the sentiment of Simona. A few months ago, with help from Simona, I led an NTHU team to visit the Technion and the Weizmann Institute. We studied in depth the intellectual capabilities of these two world renowned institutions, how they operate internally and how they interact with the commercial world. We were all impressed by what we saw and are convinced that developing strong and sustainable relations with Israeli institutions could be highly beneficial for Taiwan higher education institutions. This proposed conference on life science could very well be what we Chinese would refer to as “the spark to burn the priarie （星星之火，可以燎原）”. 

Areas to be discussed in this Conference will include

（1）Cancer Research
（2）X-Ray Structural Biology
（3）Biomedical Engineering
（4）Mechanisms of Destruction / Protein Turnover and Degradation,
（5）Disease Mechanisms and
（6）Neuroscience.

A team of twelve Taiwanese scientists from Academia Sinica, National Health Research Institute, National Tsing Hua University, National Cheng Kung University and National Sun Yat-Sen University will be speaking at the Conference as well. They include Academician Chi-Huey Wong, President of Academia Sinica, Academician Hsing-Jien Kung, President of the National Health Research Institute, Academician Kenneth K. Wu of National Tsing Hua University and Professor Ann-Shyn Chiang, Tsing Hua Chair Professor and Director of Neuroscience Center.