Academia Sinica Announces 19 New Academicians – Record Number of Women Elected, TSMC Senior VP Included

Academia Sinica announced on the 9th the list of 19 newly elected academicians and 3 honorary academicians for the 35th session. Among the new academicians, 8 are women—the highest number in history. Notably, Dr. Simon S. Yang Wu, Senior Vice President at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), has been elected as a new academician in the Engineering Sciences group.

The 19 new academicians are distributed across four divisions: 5 in Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 6 in Engineering Sciences, 4 in Life Sciences, and 4 in Humanities and Social Sciences. The youngest is Dr. Yvonne Y.-P. Ding from the Life Sciences group at age 52, while the oldest is Dr. Wen-Ching Li from the Mathematical and Physical Sciences group at age 78.

The newly elected academicians are as follows:

Mathematical and Physical Sciences: Wen-Ching Li, Tung-Hai Lee, Guey-Shiann Feng, Yu-Ju Chen, Lien-Chieh Chao.

Engineering Sciences: Simon S. Yang Wu, Hsin-Wen Sung, Yi Chang, Dah-Wei Chiou, Cheng-Shan Kuo, Kai-Hui Liao.

Life Sciences: Yvonne Y.-P. Ding, Ching-Hwa Sung, Tai-Ping Sun, Ruey-Hwa Chen.

Humanities and Social Sciences: Hsiao-Ti Lee, Chien-Liang Lee, Shih-Hsueh Lee, Kuan-Chung Huang.

Additionally, three individuals have been selected as Honorary Academicians for 2026: Ningyi Wang from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Yi-Pai Huang from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Lei Zhou from Duke University.

Dr. Ningyi Wang, at 48, is the youngest honorary academician ever elected. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023 and to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2025. Dr. Yi-Pai Huang was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2025. Dr. Lei Zhou was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.

Academia Sinica academicians hold a lifetime honorary title. According to Article 6 of the Academia Sinica Organization Act, candidates are nominated either by current academicians through co-signature or by universities and research institutions. The Election Preparatory Committee reviews eligibility, followed by pre-conference discussions where each candidate is individually reviewed. Full members then vote by correspondence within their respective divisions. The results are reviewed by the Academic Advisory Council, and candidates receiving majority approval from attending council members are shortlisted. Finally, the full list is presented to the Academician General Meeting, where candidates are thoroughly reviewed and voted on by all academicians to determine the final selections.

With this election, the total number of active academicians increases from 283 to 302. The number of honorary academicians rises from 15 to 18.

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