Tsong-Shien Wu

Hall of Fame Class of 1999

Before embarking on a long and distinguished career at National Taiwan University, Professor Wu was an employee for the Farmers Organization, which in Taiwan is a counterpart to the United States' Cooperative Extension Service. He joined the faculty at NTU as an instructor and went on to become a professor, department head, and Dean of the College of Agriculture and recently retired as Professor Emeritus.

Dr. Wu's vision and foresight enabled him to transform a department that trained extension workers into an organization that helped prepare the leaders needed to transform rural Taiwan into a nation fueled by an urban-industrial economy. Rural development, economic development, demographics, and particularly human resource development became his content specialty, and adult and continuing education became his method as he worked with students, faculty, and university and government leaders to help deal with the enormous forces of change in his country.

Dr. Wu was a pioneer in the newly emerging field of extension education in Taiwan, both as an educator and through his encouragement of scientific research by students and faculty. He was founder of the Population Study Center at National Taiwan University and served on the editorial boards of the Adult Education Dictionary and the Social Work Dictionary. In addition, he authored a book as a research consultant at the East-West Population Institute of the University of Hawaii. For his work on a new view of the future rural development in Taiwan, he received the Outstanding Research Award of the National Science Council, Cabinet Level.

Some of his extensive professional leadership roles include Chairman, Agricultural Sciences Division, Academic Evaluation Committee, Ministry of Education; President, China (Taiwan) Agricultural Association; member of Consulting Committee, China Chin-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange; member, Taiwan Fertilizer Corporation, Ministry of Economics; member, Consulting Committee, National Science Council, Cabinet; member, Research, Development, and Evaluation Committee, Cabinet; President, University of Wisconsin Alumni Association, Taiwan.