Visiting department of Chemistry at Taiwan Normal/ Charles Chuang

Visiting department of Chemistry at Taiwan Normal/ Charles Chuang I overheard that there were tennis courts at Kuankwan campus of Taiwan Normal University and decided to take a look. I took the subway for one Stop at Kuting station and transferred to Hsindien Line south for one or two stops, between Taiwan Power Building and Kuankwan. Taiwan University Campus is also nearby. I entered to this campus where I had never been, even though I graduated from the same college in 1971. In 1972, the national government granted the old warm silk institute land to Taiwan Normal for expansion. The college of Science has been moved since then. I was in the army, teaching at Huwei and Hsindien and was very busy applying for the graduate study in the United States. I have not had an opportunity to visit the new campus until today. A varsity play explained that in regular school days the courts would be only for teaching and yet after school hour still would be closed to public use. However, there are red clay court are available to the members with a fee. I understand that the land is scarce in Taipei, playing tennis in Taipei is much difficult than at Huwei. Therefore, I decided to walk among several buildings on the campus. There is a library and in no time I arrived at the entrance of the Chemistry department. On the third floor, I ran into a lady who was reading a paper. After knowing my alumnus background, she insisted that I come to the office for a visit. Then she called the former department head, Dr. Ho who I ran into at an alumni party in 2008. He asked the lady to hold me until the new department head’s return to the office. I drank hot tea at a room for guests and chatted with another professor who informed me that Dr. Chen was on his way back from a meeting. I received such favor as with surprise. Dr. Chen graduated in 1983 and also a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania, a prestige Ivy league. He started to show me 4 sets of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance NMR machine. We only carried an IR in the 60’s and could not even touch It, even in the 70’s at Auburn, Alabama, I still not had an opportunity to use NMR because only those with the research interest could operate it. I believe That the department can offer a Ph.D. to certain graduate students with sufficient instruments and faculty. Every faculty has his or her laboratory to do research. I notice that the department has changed toward the applied field of chemistry. It’s good for the students to find jobs after graduation; however, I had had a dinner with two Ph.D. candidates at the chemical engineering at the University of Houston. Both of them were in theoretical science major undergraduate, physics and chemistry, from the Chinese University of Science and Technology at Hefei, Anhuei. It’s very difficult for me to imagine that so much change in the scientific field. I asked Dr. Chen to give me some of his name cards for distribution at our Lunch gathering at Hsinchu. I was short of it then I checked internet for e-mail address. There is a Kunming Yeh from our class who is very successful in China. I told him that Dr. Chen would like to meet him.