New President Jia-Yush Yen Takes Office
Ambitious plans for Taiwan Tech

On 1 February 2021, Jia-Yush Yen took office as the new president of Taiwan Tech, succeeding Ching–Jong Liao who has served the university for eight years. Jia-Yush Yen, a renowned expert in control systems technology, has spent his academic career at neighboring National Taiwan University and is the first president from outside Taiwan Tech. 

After obtaining a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at National Tsing Hwa University, Yen went to the United States for his graduate studies. He gained a Master’s degree at the University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1997 he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Taiwan University, where he built up an outstanding career, not only in research but also in academic administration. He has also held many positions within the national and international scientific community, and in professional associations in his field. 

As an engineer and researcher who knows both the academic and the corporate world, President Yen understands the needs of industrial R&D and manufacturing, as much as he knows the situation of young graduates who wish to enter the industry. When asked about his future plans, Professor Yen said that he wanted to build on Taiwan Tech’s strengths, namely pragmatism, the high employability of its graduates, and its strong industry-academia ties. By further strengthening these ties and by encouraging faculty and students to pursue cutting-edge research, Taiwan Tech will not only become Taiwan’s best technical university but also gain an international reputation as “Taiwan's MIT”. 

Professor Jia-Yush Yen was elected by the NTUST academic community in November 2020 and appointed by the Ministry of Education (MoE) on February 1st, 2021. The term for a university president in Taiwan is four years and can be extended once, according to MoE regulations.