The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) announced on 4 December names of the 168 inventors around the world selected as its 2019 fellows, among whom Dr. Samuel Yin, founder of the Tang Prize Foundation and innovative chairman of the Ruentex Group, together with Dr. Fu-Tong Liu, vice president of Academia Sinica, are the two Taiwanese receiving this great honor.
Dr. Yin is known for integrating theories and practice to develop unique ways of making steel reinforced concrete and to devise a combination of precision precast technologies. Over the past decades, he has been making a series of crucial breakthroughs for the community of civil engineering. Many of his inventions have been incorporated into the seismic design codes in Taiwan and China as well as been used in constructing high-tech facilities and buildings. The huge differences they have made to the world can’t be ignored.
So far, 574 of Dr. Yin’s inventions have been patented in Taiwan, China, America, Japan, Europe and Great Britain and have also been allowed for fair use in different countries to improve standards of living and ensure greater safety by using fewer building materials. Moreover, among the 95 patents he decided to open up to the pubic, 19 of them are for people in Taiwan and America, and 7 of them have benefited those in China.
Renowned and respected all over the world for his expertise in civil engineering, Dr. Yin has won numerous academic honors, including the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research from American Society of Civil Engineers, Life Achievement Award from the Chinese American Academic and Professional Society, the Engineering Prowess Award from the Russian Academy of Engineering, the International Engineering Academy Star of Fame Order from the Russian Academy of Engineering, elected academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering, gold medal of the National Invention and Creation Award from Taiwan's Ministry of Economics, the Outstanding Entrepreneur Chair Honor from the College of Engineering at National Taiwan University, elected member of the Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Chinese Taiwan Society for Earthquake Engineering, and the Best Academic Paper Award from the Chinese Institute of Engineers. In September 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and this honor from the National Academy of Inventors is only the cherry on the cake.
In addition to his achievements in civil engineering, Dr. Yin has been making conscientious efforts in various fields of education. He founded the Tang Prize with the vision of recognizing people whose original research findings have made great contributions to society. Thus, the prize is intended to be an important agent for the sustainable development of human civilization.
Every year, inventors and innovative scholars from research universities, government departments or non-profit scientific institutes around the world will be honored by the NAI. Together, these NAI fellows claim more than 41,500 US patents, which have created more than 11,000 authorized technologies and companies, provided more than 36 million jobs, and generated incomes of more than 1.6 billion US dollars.
