2009 CAFA Awards

Dr. Wei-Chiang Shen received his B.S. in Chemistry from Tunghai University, Taiwan, in 1965 and Ph.D. in Bio-organic Chemistry from Boston University in 1972.  After his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Brandeis University, he joined Boston University School of Medicine as an Assistant to Associate Professor of Pathology and Pharmacology from 1976 to 1987.  Dr. Shen moved to Los Angeles in 1987, and is currently John A. Biles Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.  Dr. Shen has been the mentor of 18 Ph.D. students, 11 MS students, and 10 postdoctoral fellows in the past 22 years at USC. He has served as an external Ph.D. dissertation examiner for Dalhousie University, Canada, the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, the National University of Singapore, Singapore, and Andhra University, India, and is a Visiting Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Lanzhou University, China.

Dr. Shen's research interests focus on the development of novel systems for improving peptide and protein drug delivery.  He has published more than 120 papers in different areas of biomedical sciences, including biochemistry, cell biology, pharmaceutics, and immunology, and is a co-author of the textbook Immunology for Pharmacy Students. He is an inventor or co-inventor of 11 issued and 4 pending US patents in drug delivery. Dr. Shen is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Irish Drug Delivery Research Network, Ireland, and a consultant for the American Chemical Society TechCatalyst program. He has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Medical Research Council of Canada, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Science Foundation Ireland, Israel Science Foundation, Estonian Science Foundation, and Hungarian Scientific Research Fund.

Dr. Shen is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) since 1992 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) since 2000, and was the recipient of Eurand Award for Outstanding Novel Research in Oral Drug Delivery in 2002. He was the President of CAFA, 2004-2005.

Service Award - Professor Edward W. Hsieh

Dr. Edward W. Hsieh is currently Professor of Economics at the California State University, Los Angeles. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1978 from National Taiwan University, and his Ph.D. degree in Economics in 1989 from the University of Houston, University Park. Dr. Hsieh joined the faculty at CSULA in 1989 and served as Department Chair from 2001 through 2007.

Dr. Hsieh’s academic training is in the areas of Public Finance and Public Choice. His research papers have appeared in such prestigious economics journals as the Journal of Urban Economics, Public Finance Review, Taiwan Economic Review, Atlantic Economic Review, Public Finance, Applied Economic, etc. During his tenure at CSULA, Dr. Hsieh also had opportunities to visit and teach at universities in Taiwan and China. In the past two years, he has been involved in the training of Taiwan’s tax officials, a program hosted by the Ministry of Finance of Taiwan. Dr. Hsieh was nominated and his name appeared several times in “The Who’s Who among American Teachers”. He is now on the roster of the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.

Professor Hsieh has been active in community services in the past years. He was involved in the San Gabriel Valley Workforce Program sponsored by the James Irvine Foundation and was a long-time Board member of the Chinese American Professional Society (CAPS). He has given numerous speeches and presentations in seminars designed to provide expert opinions to local Chinese communities on current economic and business issues. Dr. Hsieh is also a key Board member of Lightning Taichi, a non-profit association targeting at promoting the health and psychological benefits of practicing Taichi Chuan. The organization frequently participated and performed in local community events and functions.

Dr. Hsieh joined CAFA in 2003, at the recommendation of Dr. Cindy Fang. He has served as CAFA Treasurer and Board member since then. Last year, he became Board member and Treasurer of CAFA Scholarship Foundation. Professor Hsieh is now the President Elect and will serve as the next CAFA President for 2009.

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