President Chen Shui-bian met this morning with Dr. Craig Venter, extending his utmost welcome and appreciation on behalf of the Republic of China (Taiwan) government and its people toward the visit of the U.S. biologist.
President Chen noted that Dr. Venter has been praised as one of the most excellent scientists of the 21th Century and one who contributes the most to the world's genomics research. He developed expressed sequence tags (EST), which lays the groundwork for future genomics development.
Dr. Venter is visiting Taiwan at the invitation of Chung Yuan Christian University as the school celebrates its 50th anniversary. He was been invited several times by the Academia Sinica prior to this visit, but he was unable to come. President Chen asked the students and faculties of the university, as well as Taiwan's 23 million people and local biologists, to appreciate his visit to the country. While calling Dr. Venter's trip to Taiwan a "present" that marks the university's anniversary, President Chen hoped that the U.S. biologist could give advice and opinions to Taiwan's researchers in the genomics field.
President Chen added that with his support, the Academia Sinica has founded the Genomics Research Center (GRC). Related research institutes were also established in recent years, in addition to the GRC. The president wished Dr. Venter could share his experience in the field with local researchers during his stay in Taiwan.