On April 21 at the Office of the President, President Chen Shui-bian met with Dr. Andrew V. Schally, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1977. The president told Schally that Taiwan anticipates becoming the genomics research center in the Pacific region in 10 years.
The president first praised Dr. Schally for his enthusiasm and perseverance in scientific research, referring to the fact that even Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans where Dr. Schally's laboratories were located, could not stop his inquiries for the truth.
Dr. Andrew V. Schally, a Polish American who survived in the Nazi Concentration Camp during the Second World War, was invited by the Academia Sinica to give a lecture.
The president told his guest that the Academia Sinica has put a great deal of attention on genomic medicine under the direction of Dr. Lee Yuan-tze, president of the establishment and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in1986. Dr. Lee also attended the meeting.
According to the president, Dr. Lee once told him that blessed are those who grew up in hardships and tribulations, for their dreams are the most beautiful, which the president also considered fit for Dr. Schally.