頒授諾貝爾獎得主華生博士 (Dr. James D. Watson) 榮譽特聘講座教授典禮致詞

頒授諾貝爾獎得主華生博士 (Dr. James D. Watson) 榮譽特聘講座教授典禮致詞 (中英文)

華生博士、夫人，各位貴賓，各位女士、先生：

本人謹代表清華大學，以極感榮幸的心情頒授榮譽特聘講座教授予詹姆斯．華生博士，並主持「詹姆斯．華生演講廳」的啟用典禮。

清華大學國學院四大導師之一的趙元任先生先祖，清代詩人趙翼曾有詩云：「江山代有才人出，各領風騷五百年」，華生博士正是趙翼所指稱的巨人之一。華生博士發現DNA 的結構，所領導推動的「人類基因體計畫」均對人類有重大貢獻，不僅在生命科學領域造成長遠的影響，也為不斷努力探究了解「人之所以為人」持續努力的科學家們開啟嶄新的門徑。

不久之前，我讀到有位星際爭霸戰寇克船長的粉絲談到：能與從小景仰的人會面是件很「酷」的事，更棒的是能以令他感興趣的事吸引他前來會面。今天，我們很興奮能夠邀請到我大學時代就仰慕的華生博士來訪。身為清華大學的校長，本人深感榮幸有這個機會頒予華生博士榮譽特聘講座教授，並主持將新改裝的演講廳命名為「詹姆斯．華

生演講廳」的典禮。

在華生博士『基因、女孩、華生: 雙螺旋二部曲』的書中，他提到在發現DNA 結構的劃時代時刻約一個月後，在美國冷泉港實驗室召開的一個有關噬菌體的會議，會議在共約有270 位科學家參與的大廳舉行。今天我們所在的「詹姆斯．華生廳」講堂，高朋滿座，大約雲集相同數目的貴賓。在1953 年參加噬菌體會議的270 名科學家，均是噬菌體領域赫赫有名的學者，許多人在後來獲得諾貝爾獎。這可能不只是巧合，我預祝今天聚集在這裡的科學家或研究人員，很快能在各自的領域大放異彩，成為世界級的學者，為台灣生物科技的研究與發展開創歷史新頁。

身為生命科學研究的領先機構之一，清華大學生命科學院擁有最佳的人力資源、多元領域的研究環境，能整合創造力與研發能量，致力於基因體序及蛋白質基因組破解途徑的研究。今天，除華生博士將以「DNA 雙股螺旋結構發現者的研究生涯發展」專題演講外，本校生命科學院的傑出同事江安世教授將為大家介紹領先世界、革命性的腦神經科學研究，另外兩位支持這次活動的成功企業家，也曾在清華擔任過全職或合聘教授的沈燕士董事長及王長怡董事長，將對生技產業發展有精闢的演講。同時，陳文村前校長也將介紹新竹生醫園區研發中心的規劃。我相信這場學術饗宴不僅精彩豐富，會後必定仍能令人回味無窮。

各位女士與先生，今天對清華而言是榮耀的一天，除了我們可以驕傲的宣布華生博士成為學校傑出一員外，它也是一個重要的里程碑，因為我們可以乘這個機會，宣告本校生物科技領域的學者得以與世界級

大師華生博士更緊密的結合。

最後，我要再次對華生博士與夫人致以最誠摯的歡迎，希望您在我們

美麗的校園和風光旖旎的國家有段愉快的經歷，謝謝。

Dr. and Madame Watson, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of National Tsing Hua University, I have the great honor to

confer an Honorary Distinguished Chair Professorship upon Dr. James

Watson and to preside over the ceremony dedicating this grand lecture

hall as James D. Watson Hall.

Mr. Yi Chao, a famous poet of Chines Dynasty and was the a forefather of Dr. Yuan-Jen Chao, who was one of the greatest scholars of Beijing Tsinghua University, once said: “a giant is born in every generation and a very few go on to lead the world for hundreds of years.” Dr. Watson is one of those giants that Yi Chao was describing. Dr. Watson’s discovery of DNA structure, his leadership in the human genome project are two well known stellar contributions that not only have lasting impacts on the life science community but also opened up new avenues for scientists to advance in their ongoing efforts to understand ourselves as human beings.

A while ago, I read that a fan of Captain Kirk of the Star Trek TV series once made a remark that “it is cool to meet someone you have idolized since your childhood, it is even cooler to have him come to your place to see what is interesting.” We are indeed, very excited to have Dr. Watson whom we have admired since our college days to visit us. As the President of NTHU, I am very proud, indeed, honored to have this opportunity to confer the Distinguished Chair Professorship upon Dr. Watson and dedicate this newly renovated lecture hall in his honor.

In Dr. Watson’s book, “Gene, Girls and Gamov,” Dr. Watson mentioned a conference on phages held in Cold Spring Harbor about a month after the monumental discovery of the DNA structure. The conference was held in a hall and attended by 270 scientists and the hall we are christening as James Watson Hall today can accommodate about the same number of people. The 270 attending scientists then included all the big names in the field of phages at that time. Many of those scholars went on for great achievements and quite a few became Nobel Prize winners. I hope some, if not all, scientists and researchers gathered here in today, will soon become world-class scholars in their respective fields and usher in a new era of life science research and development in Taiwan.

As one of the leading institutions of life science research, NTHU’s College of Life Science has the best human resource and interdisciplinary research environment to integrate the creativity and research brain power to pursue path-breaking researches in the post-genomic and proteomic era. Today, In addition to Dr. Watson’s talk on “From the Discovery of the Double Helix Structure to the Development of a Research Career,” my distinguished colleagues in the College of Life Science are going to share with you the revolutionary research projects led by Dr. Ann-Shyn Chiang’s team as well as path-breaking advances in biotechnology by Dr. Thomas Y. S. Shen and Dr. Chang-I Wang. In addition, former president Chen Wen-Tsueng will give a brief description of the development of Hsinchu Biomedical Park that he is directing under the behest of National Science Council. It is my hope that you will thoroughly enjoy the program and the memorable event.

Ladies and gentlemen, today is not only a glorious day for Tsing Hua because we have the honor to claim Dr. Watson as one of our esteemed colleagues, today is also an important milestone for our life science program because of the close relationship we are establishing with the giant in the field of life science.

Last but not the least, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Dr.

and Madame Watson again and wish you have a nice and very enjoyable stay in our beautiful campus and fabulous island of Taiwan. Thank you.