Taipei, July 17 (CNA) An Academia Sinica scholar on Monday hailed the Tang Prize in sustainable development, saying it helps to raise public awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability.
With increased recognition that global warming is caused by environmental hazards, sustainable development has become a major public concern, said Wang Pao-kuan (王寶貫), director of Academia Sinica's Research Center for Environmental Changes.
In order to promote greater public awareness of issues related to environmental sustainability, Wang said the organizers of the Tang Prize, which is sometimes referred to as the "Asian Nobel Prize," decided in December 2012 to introduce a prize focused exclusively on sustainable development, a category the Nobel Prize does not cover.
While hailing the establishment of the prize, Wang suggests the organizers should invite recipients to Taiwan, hold popular science events and encourage scientific research into environmental sustainability.
Wang also proposed that the organizers should fund research into sustainability issues.
In terms of environmental education, Wang said the organizers should arrange for more prize recipients to visit Taiwan to give speeches and interact with local scholars and experts or work with Taiwan's educational institutions to hold environmental sustainability-related exhibitions.
Wang also advised the organizers to set up a scholarship as a way of encouraging academics to undertake and publish research in the field.
(By Yu Hsiao-han and Evelyn Kao)
