National Science Council announced the winners for 2008 outstanding PhD. dissertations in humanities and social sciences. After the rigorous process of evaluation, PhD. Candidates Jun-xian Liu from the TKU Institute of Management Sciences and Wen-chien Huang from the Department of Chinese won the prestigious NSC Dissertation Awards (NT$420,000 each). Among the winners, only three candidates were from private universities, but TKU had two winners out of the three, gaining recognition for TKU’s research potential among graduate students.
Since 2006, NSC has given awards to PhD. candidates with research potential to enhance the qualities and research standards of PhD. dissertations. One TKU candidate won the award in 2006 and two this year.
Jun-xian Liu won the award with his dissertation entitled “The Formation of Common Integration of Customer-Oriented Service Pattern and the Making of Management Strategies.” He said, “I am really lucky, and also grateful to my supervisor, the Director of TKU’s EMBA, Dr. Chu-ching Wang for his help with my writing of the dissertation last year. It is all worth the hardships, as my effort has resulted in contribution to the pattern of service and management. His supervisor, Dr. Wang remarked that Jun-xian was an excellent student with a dynamic personality and a strong executive capability. So far, he has published two essays in SSCI listed journals, one in an EI journal and another in a TSSCI journal. His PhD. dissertation displays unique originality and innovation, so it has won not only the NSC award, but also the first prize for PhD. dissertations by the Chinese Institute of Decision Sciences, the prizes for excellent PhD. dissertations by both 2008 TOPCO Dissertation Grand Awards and Sayling Wen Services and Scientific Research Thesis Awards.
Wen-chien Huang won the NSC award with her dissertation “Study on the ‘Exploring’ Writers in Mainland China.” She explained, “I have been very interested in this topic since I did my master’s degree, but up to now, few people in Taiwan have done this sort of research. So I often came across difficult problems in data collection at the beginning. But I am very thankful to my supervisor for her inspiring encouragement, and because of that, my dissertation has had its breadth and won the award.” Her supervisor, Professor Jeng-huei Liu from the Department of Chinese expressed, “Wen-chien’s dissertation is one of the very few Taiwanese dissertations that have a thorough collection of information about the Mainland. She often goes to the Mainland to do research and has actively developed friendships with mainland scholars in order to understand the logic relationship between the mainland writers and their times. Her sincere manner is worth praising.” ( ~ Dean X. Wang )
