The Academia Sinica announced this year's new academicians on Thursday. Among the 18 newly elected members is Nobel laureate Roger Tsien, and four out

18 scholars received Taiwan's highest academic honor this week when they were elected as Academia Sinica academicians.

According to Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey, the fact that domestic and foreign scholars each account for 50% of the group clearly indicates that Taiwan's academic environment is maturing.

Nine of the 18 new academicians specialize in mathematics or science, including Lee Shih-chang, who was the principal investigator of the Large Hadron Collider experiment.

Meanwhile, the third time was the charm for Nobel laureate Roger Tsien, who was elected to the Division of Life Sciences on his third nomination with the highest acceptance rate in Academia Sinica history.

The National Health Research Institutes' oncology specialist, Wang Lu-hai, was elected on his first nomination.

Wang, who suffered from polio as a child, hopes that his research can benefit more patients.

The Division of Humanities and Social Sciences admitted four new academicians, including partially visually impaired linguistic expert Ho Dah-an.

Ho is the only one of the 18 that was educated and trained exclusively in Taiwan.

Angela Leung, who began her academic career at the Academia Sinica, currently teaches in Hong Kong.

Many of the new academicians said that while a great deal of luck was involved, they were honored to have their academic achievements recognized by the Academia Sinica.