Chi-Huey Wong

Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute

President, Academia Sinica

128 Academia Road, Section 2, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan

Tel:+886-2-2789-9400  Fax: +886-2-2785-3852 

E-mail: chwong@gate.sinica.edu.tw; wong@scripps.edu

Degree and Field	Dates	Institution
B.S. Chemistry& Biochemical Sciences	1966–1970	National Taiwan University
M.S. Biochemical Sciences	1975–1977	National Taiwan University
Ph.D. Organic Chemistry	1979–1982	MIT (with G.M. Whitesides)
Postdoctoral Fellow	1982–1983	Harvard University (with G.M.Whitesides)

Academic Appointments

Assistant Professor (1983–1986), Associate Professor (1986–1987), and Professor (1987–1989) of Chemistry, Texas A&M University.
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, 1987–1989.
Head, Frontier Research Program on Glycotechnolgy, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Japan, 1991–1999.
Professor and Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 1989–2006.
Member, The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 1996–2006.
Director and Distinguished Research Fellow, The Genomics Research Center, Acadmia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 2003–2006.
President, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 2006-present.
Professor of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 2006-present.
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemical Sciences, National Taiwan University, 2006-present.
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan, 2007-present.

Honors and Professional Activities

Awards

• Searle Scholar Award in Biomedical Sciences (1985–1988).

• Presidential Young Investigator Award in Chemistry (1986–1991).

• American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1993).

• The Roy Whistler Award of International Carbohydrate Organization (1994).

• The Chinese American Chemical Society Distinguished Research Achievement Award (1994).

• The ACS Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry Melville L. Wolfrom Award (1995).

• Member, NIH Biomedical Sciences Study Section (1993–1995), NIH Bioorganic and Natural Products Chemistry Study Section (1995–1999).

• Visiting Professor, Chemical Center, University of Lund, Sweden (1995–1998).

• The Taiwanese American Foundation Prize in Science and Engineering (1997).

• The American Chemical Society Harrison Howe Award in Chemistry (1998).

• Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Institute of Chemistry (1999–2002) and Corresponding Research Fellow, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei (1996–2002).

• Honorary Professor, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, (1999–present).

• The American Chemical Society Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry (1999).

• The American Chemical Society San Diego Section Outstanding Scientist Award (1999).

• The International Enzyme Engineering Award (1999).

• Selected by ISI as one of the 100 most cited chemists in the world for the period (1981–1999).

• The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, USA (2000).

• The American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2005).

• The Georges Smets Chair Award for Organic or Polymer Chemistry, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (2006).

• Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists (2006).

• Doctor, Scientiarum Honoris Causa, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel (2007).

• Honorary Doctorate, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei (2007).

• Honorary Fellow, the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI), India (2007).

• Honorary Doctorate, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2008).

• The F. A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research (2008).

• National Science Council Science Professional Medal in Gold, Taiwan (2009).

Membership

• Elected Member of Academia Sinica, Taipei (1994).

• Elected Member of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996).

• Elected Member of the US National Academy of Sciences (2002).

• Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005).

• Elected Member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) (2007).

• Elected Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India (2007).

Advisory Activity

• Chairman of Executive Board of Editors – Tetrahedron Publications (2007 – 2008)

• Advisory Board Member: Journal of Organic Chemistry (1993–1997); Journal of Chemical Society, Perkin Transaction 1 (1993–2002); ChemBioChem (2005-present); The Journal of the American Chemical Society (2005–present); Chemistry–An Asian Journal (2006–present).

• Editorial Board Member: Biocatalysis (1991–2000); Carbohydrate Letters (1995–2000); Drug Discovery Today (1996–1999); Current Opinion in Chemical Biology (1998–present); Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis (2000–present).

• Founder, Combichem, Inc., San Diego, CA (1994); Founder, Board Member, and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc, San Diego (1999–2006), Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board (2006-present).

• Consultant for Dow Chemical (1983–1988), W.R. Grace (1984–1987), Amgen (1991–1993), Dow Corning (1992–1994), Abbott Laboratories (1991–1994), Lilly Research Laboratories (1991–1993), Mitsubishi Chemical Group Science and Technology Research Center, Japan (2005–2006).

• Scientific Advisor for Amylin (1989–1993), Oncogene Science (1993–1998), Cytel (1991–1997), Affymax (1992–1995), ArQule (1994–1995), RedCell (1993–1997), Medinox (1996–2006), Kosan Biosciences (1997–2002), Pharmanex (1997–2006), Advanced Medicine (now Theravance) (1997–2000), Combichem (1994–1998), Momenta (2001–2003), Optimer (1999–present), Diversa (2001–2006), Serenex (2001–present), Institute of Chemistry (1992–2000; Chairman of the Board, 1994–2000) and Institute of Biological Chemistry (1994–2002), Academia Sinica, Taipei; Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, National University of Singapore (1994–1997), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan (2004–2006), Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB), Taiwan (2004–2006).

• Member of Board of Directors: Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Diego (1999–2006), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan (2004–2006), Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB), Taiwan (2005–present), Member of the Board of Directors, National Science Council, Taiwan (2008–present), Advisory Board Member: Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan (2006–present).

• Member, Scripps/Novartis Joint Scientific Council (1993–2006).

• Editor-in-Chief, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry (1993–present).

• Member of Executive Board of Editors for the Tetrahedron Publications (1993–present), Chairman of the Board (2006-2008).

• Scientific Advisor for Max-Planck-Institut at Dortmund, Germany (2000–2008).

• Board member of the National Research Council on Chemical Sciences & Technology, USA (2000–2004).

• The Chief Science and Technology Advisor, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (2008 – present)

• Member, Steering Committee of the Eli Lily TB Drug Discovery Initiative (2009 – present)

• Member of Board of Scientific Governors, The Scripps Research Institute (2008 – present)

Plenary and Named Lectures

1984	188th ACS National Meeting.
1985	NATO Advanced Research Workshop.
1986	US/Japan Biotechnology Conference, Japan. International Symposium on “Biocatalysis in Organic Media,” Wageningen, the Netherlands; 5th International Symposium on Life Science: Prospects for Enzyme Technology, Kyoto.
1987	The Pittsburg–Cleveland Catalysis Society Meeting: Frontiers in Catalysis. Gordon Research Conference on Organic Reactions and Processes; The 18th Annual NSF Workshop on Organic Synthesis and Natural Products Chemistry; The 87th American Society of Microbiology Meeting, Atlanta. 194th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans. Biotechnica ‘87, Hannover.
1988	Symposium on Biotransformation, The Society of General Microbiology, University of Southampton, UK (2/2); Symposium on Bioorganic Synthesis, Swedish Academy of Sciences (2/3). ACS Regional Meeting, 22nd MARM Symposium on Organic Synthesis (5/24); ACS central regional meeting, Symposium on New Synthetic Strategy, West Virginia (6/2); Gordon Research Conference on Stereochemistry, New Port (7/4); Conference on Biocatalytic Synthesis of Organic Compounds, New York (8/8); Symposium on Molecular Recognition Phenoma, Royal Society of Chemistry and Swiss Chemical Society (9/11).
1989	French–American Chemical Society 1st Meeting, Paris (6/5–6/8).
1990	University of Illinois, Frontier in Enzyme Chemistry (3/17); Texas A&M IUCCP Program (3/19); ACS National Meeting, Boston, Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry (4/25); Gordon Conference on Natural Products (7/22); IUMS Congress, Osaka (9/16); Society for Complex Carbohydrates, La Jolla (10/12).
1991	US–Japan Conference on Biotechnology, Hawaii (1/6); The 13th Annual Conference on Clinical Laboratory Molecular Analysis (2/14); Frontiers in Biomedical Research, Annenberg Center, Palm Springs (2/18); Merck lecturer, University of Alberta, Chemistry (3/18); US–Japan Conference on Selectivity in Synthetic and Bioorganic Chemistry, Tokyo (6/3); ASM Biotechnology Conference, New York (6/27); ACS National Meeting/Fourth North American Congress (8/28); European Peptide Society, Enzymes in Peptide Synthesis, IEC-Bogensee, Germany (9/2); Enzyme Engineering, Hawaii (9/25); International Biotechnology Conference, San Francisco (10/27); Rhone-Poulenc’s 14th Scientific Sessions, Frontiers in Chemistry and Biology, Paris (11/19); International Symposium on Bioorganic Chemistry, University of Chicago (11/22).
1992	Symposium on Enzymes in organic synthesis, IUPAC meeting in New Delhi, India (1/6); NATO Meeting on Microbial Reagents in Organic Synthesis (3/23); Symposium on Enzymes in organic chemistry: Synthetic and mechanistic aspects, The Organic Chemistry Division, The Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (4/9); Monsanto lecturer, Purdue University (5/4); International Workshop on New Aspects of Biocatalysis, Kyoto University (6/12); 4th International SCBA Symposium, Singapore (6/14); IUPAC International Carbohydrate Symposium, Paris (7/5–7/10); Syntex lecturer, Colorado State University (11/19–11/20); Symposium on the Preparation of Enantiomerically Pure Compounds, Societe Royale de Chimie, Belgium (10/22–10/23); International Symposium on Gangliosides, Tokyo (11/5).
1993	Merck-Frosst lecturer, University of Victoria (1/21); International Symposium on Bioorganic Chemistry, Interlaken, Switzerland (3/31–4/2); the 28th ESF/EUCHEM Conference on Stereochemistry-Burgenstock (5/2–5/8); Harvard University Mini Symposium in Organic Chemistry (5/17); Complex Carbohydrate for Drug Research, Denmark (6/6–6/10); Carbohydrate Gordon Research Conference (7/5–7/8); Chiron lecturer, UC-Berkeley (9/7).
1994	Bristol-Myers Squibb Distinguished Lecturer, Syracuse University, New York (4/5); Sino-American Symposium on Asymmetric Synthesis, Taiwan (4/8); New Perspective in drug design, Thurnberry, Scotland (4/11); CHI’s Glycotechnology Conference, San Diego (5/16);  Organizer and Planary Lecturer, Table Ronde on Biomolecular Recognition and Catalysis, Paris (7/8–7/9); International Carbohydrate Award lecturer, International Carbohydrate Symposium, Ottawa (7/18); IASOC Conference, Ischia, Italy (9/25); W.S. Johnson Symposium in Organic Chemistry, Stanford University (10/7); 6th Annual Klaxo-UNC Frontiers in Chemistry and Medicine Symposium (11/7).
1995	International Symposium on Protein Structure and Function, U. Exeter, UK (4/19); Contemporary Challenges in Carbohydrate Chemistry, 1995 UM/PD Symposium, Ann Arbor (4/28); Merck lecturer, University of Cambridge, England (5/10); Tetrahedron Symposium, Kyoto (5/26); The 10th Nozaki Conference, Nagoya (6/15); International Heterocycle Chemistry, Taipei (8/7); Nobel Symposium on Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis, Stockholm (9/3); The 7th International Symposium on Chiral Discrimination (ISCD), Jerusalem (11/12).
1996	Swiss Chemical Society (5/23); IUPAC Conference on Organic Synthesis, Amsterdam (6/30); Keynote speaker, the 4th International Symposium for Chinese Organic Chemists, Hong Kong (4/5); Wyeth-Ayerst lecturer, Columbia University (4/19); Keynote speaker, the Royal Society of Chemistry Annual Meeting, Perthshire, Scotland (9/12); ACS Princeton Organic Chemistry Symposium (9/27).
1997	Israel Chemical Society (2/3); Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida (2/12); the Royal Society of Chemistry Carbohydrate Division (3/24); ACS William Johnson Symposium (4/14); Keynote lecturer, 2nd Carbohydrate Bioengineering, La Rochelle, France (4/15); C.H. Li Memorial lecturer, Academia Sinica, Taipei (5/2); 9th European Carbohydrate Symposium (6/11); 35th ACS National Organic Chemistry Symposium (6/22); Sponsored lecturer, 6th International Symposium on the synthesis and application of isotopes and isotopically labeled compounds, Philadelphia (9/14); Frontier in Chemical Research Program, Texas A&M University (10/13).
1998	Allelix lecurer, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, (5/7); 26th National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, Richmond, Virginia, (6/15); 20th Japanese Carbohydrate Symposium (7/15); ACS Symposium on Asymmetric synthesis of Fluoroorganic Compounds, Boston (8/23); Tetrahedron Prize Symposium, Boston (8/26); The 17th International Symposium on the Life Sciences, Kyoto (11/4).
1999	Paul Gassman lecturer, Department of Chemisry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (6/1); The 37th IUPAC Congress, Berlin (8/14); The 1999 Naff Symposium on Carbohydrates and Cell Recognition (4/16); Enzyme Engineering XV (10/10). Frontiers in Bioorganic Chemistry 2000, Taipei (10/29).
2000	The Knud Lind Larsen Symposium on Chirality, Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (1/27); The Eighth International Kyoto Conference on New Aspects of Organic Chemistry (IKCOC-8), Kyoto (7/11); the Gordon Conference on Green Chemistry, Connecticut (7/18); International Carbohydrate Conference, Hamberg (8/22); The Novartis lecturer, Budapest (10/22); International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies, Honolulu (12/18).
2001	The Royal Society of Chemistry Carbohydrate Group, Dublin, Ireland (4/4); the International Conference on Green Chemistry, Wales Swansea, UK (4/6); Gordon Research Conference on Bioorganic Chemistry, New Hampshire (6/17); Enzyme Engineering XVI Conference, Potsdam, Germany (10/7); Robert A. Welch Foundation Conference on Chemistry for the 21st Century, Houston (10/29); Merck lecturer, Wayne State University (11/4).
2002	International Conference on Industrial Applications of Biocatalysis, San Diego (3/21); Health Care Ventures Scientific Advisory Board Retreat, Palm Beach (4/10); First ICI Conference on Contemporary Asymmetric Catalysis (9/12); The Merck lecturer, University of Cambridge, UK (9/22). IUPAC Conference on Natural Products, Florence, Italy (7/29).
2003	Treat B. Johnson Lecture, Yale University (2/19); International Bioinspiring Conference, Haifa, Israel (12/8); International Enzyme Engineering Conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico (11/9).
2004	3rd International Proteomics Conference, Taipei, Taiwan (5/17); Ralph and Helen Oesper Symposium, Univeristy of Cincinnati (10/15); The 4th Tateshima Conference in Organic Chemistry, Tokyo, Japan (11/12); Yousei University lectureship, Seoul, Korea (11/16); International Symposium on Current Therapeutics Development for Infectious Diseases, Taipei, Taiwan (12/16).
2005	Keynote lecturer, 3rd Annual Conference on Glycomics–Carbohdrates in Drug Development, San Diego (3/21); American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMS), San Diego (4/2); Wyeth Ayerst lecturer, University of Pennsylvania (4/12); Arnold O. Beckman lecturer, California Institute of Technology (5/18); Commissariat a L’energie Atomique u Centre de Sacly, Paris, France (6/27); Tetrahedron Symposium, Bordeaux, France (6/28); Tetrahedron Prize Symposium, 2005 Amercian Chemical Society Meeting, Washington D.C. (8/29); Royal Society of Chemistry-Fluroine Group, Oxford, UK (9/1–9/2); Harry Day lecturer, Indiana University (9/14).
2006	Recipient, Smets Chair Award, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (3/13-3/14); Keynote speaker, CHI’s 4th Annual Glycomics and Carbohydrates in Drug Development, San Diego (3/23–3/24); Keynote lecturer, CACS 25th Anniversary Symposium, Atlanta (3/27);  Trends in Organic Chemistry: Enzymatic Synthesis, Stockholm (9/4); Keynote speaker, Joint third AOHUPO and Fourth International Structural Biology and Functional Genomics Conference, Singapore (12/4-12/7).
2007	Novartis Lecturer, Columbia University (1/29); Claude S. Hudson Award Symposium, 233th ACS National Meeting, Chicago (3/25); Organic Chemistry—Present & Future, International Symposium Organized in Honor of Prof. Léon Ghosez, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (4/10-4/13); 24th Herbert C. Brown Lecture, Purdue University (4/19); Gordon Research Conferences—Carbohydrates, Tilton School, New Hampshire (6/17); Tetrahedron Symposium, Berlin (6/28); International Symposium on Molecular Immunology of Complex Carbohydrates, Academia Sinica, Taipei (7/9); Eli Lilly Lecture, Yale University (9/19); The 4th Takeda Science Foundation Symposium on Pharma Sciences, Tokyo (12/3).
2008	The 10th CRSI (Chemical Research Society of India) National Symposium—Honorary Fellow Award & Lecture, Bangalore, India (2/1~2/3); Monte Jade Annual Conference—Dinner Keynote Speech, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA (3/8); The 4th Symposium: Innovation COE Program for Future Drug Discovery and Medical Care, Hokkaido University, Japan (3/14); Cotton Medal Symposium, Texas A & M University (3/24~3/26); Joint 7th Human Genome Organization-Pacific Meeting and the 8th Asia Pacific Conference on Human Genetics, Cebu, the Philippines (4/2~4/5); ASBMB Meeting, San Diego (4/5~4/9); International Congress on Bioactive Molecules and the 3rd International Symposium on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Oujda, Morocco (5/28~5/29); IUPAC ICOS-17, the 17th IUPAC International Conference on Organic Synthesis, Daejeon, Korea (6/24~6/26); Tetrahedron Symposium, Berkeley, California (7/22~7/26); Howard Lectures, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (8/6~8/8); Tetrahedron Prize Symposium and the 236th ACS Meeting, Philadelphia (8/17~8/22); NRC-NSC Eminent Researchers Program (9/2~9/6); EMBL Conference on Chemical Biology 2008, Heidelberg, Germany (10/8~10/11); 50th Anniversary of Microbial Chemistry Research Foundation, Tokyo (10/30); ISOR-2008, International Symposium on Organic Reactions, Taiwan (11/23).
2009	Harvard Business School Asia Business Conference, Boston (2/14~2/15); Scripps Scientific Governors Inaugural Symposium, Florida (2/27); The 237th ACS Meeting and Claude Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry Symposium, Salt Lake City (3/22~3/26); The 238th ACS Meeting, Washington D.C. (8/16~8/20); 11th Conference on Chitin and Chitosan, Taiwan (9/7); The 1st Hokkaido Univ-Academia Sinica Joint Symposium and The 7th Symposium for Future Drug Discovery and Medical Care, Hokkaido, Japan (10/7~10/8); The 3rd International Symposium on Bio-Inspired Engineering (10/21~10/23).
2010	7th International Symposium for Chinese Medicinal Chemists (ISCMC-2010), Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2/1~2/5); XII International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections, Taipei (3/11~3/14); Conference of Presidents of Academies and Scholarly Societies: in celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Israel (3/14~3/20); Konstanz Symposium Chemical Biology/Inselhotel, Konstanz, Germany (6/16~6/18); 25th International Carbohydrate Symposium(ICS 2010), Tokyo, Japan (8/1~8/6).
2011	The Inaugural (1st) International Conference on Molecular and Functional Catalysis, Singapore (7/11~7/15)

Principal areas of research interest

Chemical Biology and Synthetic Chemistry: Development of new synthetic methods based on enzymatic and chemo-enzymatic approaches; Directed evolution of enzymes; Synthesis of complex carbohydrates, glycoproteins and small-molecule probes for the study of post-translational glycosylation and carbohydrate-mediated biological recognition; Programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis; Rational design, Synthesis and evaluation of enzyme inhibitors; Development of small molecules targeting RNA and the immune system; Synthesis of oligosaccharide  microarrays for high-throughput screening; Mechanism; Development of molecular probes to study post-translational glycosylation, vaccine design and drug discovery.

Click here for a complete list of publications and patents.

For more information, please refer to the Wong lab homepage.