National Chung Hsing University

Prof. Min-Hsiung Pan completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the College of Medicine, National Taiwan University (1996~2000). He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Institute of Food Science and Technology, National Taiwan University. The major research focus of his laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for natural dietary compounds in human diseases and carcinogenesis. He has published over 320 journal articles. His current research interests include the discovery and development of novel nutraceuticals that can be used in functional foods/dietary supplements to prevent chronic diseases such as cancer, inflammatory conditions, epigenetic regulation, liver fibrosis, and obesity. Prof. Pan has received multiple awards for his outstanding research contributions, including two Outstanding Research Awards from the Ministry of Science and Technology (2011, 2018) and the Ta-You Wu Memorial Award from the National Science Council in 2007 for the implementation of special research projects. In addition, he was named one of the 46th Ten Outstanding Young People the following year. He was also awarded the Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2014, the Outstanding Research Award from the Taiwan Association for Food Science and Technology in 2018, and the Outstanding Basic Research Award for Cancer Medicine from Dr. Da-Cheng Tung in 2020. It is evident that Professor Pan is highly recognized in the academic field. Furthermore, he currently serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Dr Mary Chan-Park is the 2019 Board of Trustees Chaired Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU Singapore). She also holds a joint appointment at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at NTU.  She is the Director of the Centre for Antimicrobial Bioengineering, and also the Director of CARIE (Centre for Aquaculture Research, Innovation and Education. She is a Fellow of the America Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. She is also an associate editor of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Applied Materials & Interfaces. Her main research interests are in polymers in nanoscience and biotechnology. She has published extensively, with more than 250 papers in top-tier journals. She is a leader in the field of antibacterial and antibiofilm polymers. Her group has invented a new class of potent cationic antimicrobial polymers which are non-toxic and biocompatible. Her antibacterial polymers are more environmentally friendly than current disinfectives and are being applied as device coatings and solutions to fight the global Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) public health crisis. These new antimicrobial polymers have been reported in Biomaterials (2022), Aquaculture (2022), Angewandte Chemie (2020), Chemical Science (2022, 2020), Nature Communications (2019), Nano Letters (2018), ACS Nano (2015), Advanced Materials (2012) and Nature Materials (2011). Together with MIT, she has also pioneered dynamic in situ plant hormonal sensors using polymers and nanotechnology. Her patents have been used by/licensed to companies. Professor Mary Chan contributes actively to the industry through industry cooperation projects, consultancy and licensing of her technologies. Professor Mary Chan was also a pioneer of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering degree program at NTU. She was the founding Associate Chair (Research & Graduate Studies) and Associate Chair (Research and External Relations) of the new NTU School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from 2005-2010 and 2010-2011, respectively, and the Acting Chair from 2011-2013. She has graduated and trained 30 PhD students and 12 Masters students.