It is with profound sadness and grief that we announce the death of Dr. Yun-han Chu, who passed away on February 5, 2023. He was 67 years old.
Dr. Yun-han Chu was Distinguished Research Fellow of Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS). He served as one of the three founding fellows of the institute during its establishment in 2002. He was elected as Academician of Academia Sinica in 2012, Taiwan’s highest academic honor and as Fellow of the World Academy of Science (TWAS) in 2016. He worked as a visiting associate professor at Columbia University in 1990-1991 and Convener of Political Science, National Science Council in 1995-1997. He also served concurrently as President of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange since 2001. He won the Outstanding Research Awards by the National Science Council in 1996-1997, 1997-1998, and 2000-2001.
Dr. Chu specializes in East Asian political economy, democratization, and politics of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. He was dedicated to the promotion of survey research in the social sciences. He served as a co-chair of the Executive Council of Global Barometer Surveys, the world’s largest social science survey research network. In addition, he and Academician Fu Hu founded the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) and set up its headquarters in Taiwan. The ABS brings together scholars from Taiwan and overseas with experience working on cross-national comparative surveys, applying an integrated research framework and standardized survey protocol to cross-national comparative survey research in East Asia. The ABS is the first cross-national research project focusing on democratization in East Asia. It is also the first cross-national research project led by East Asian scholars and the first such project led by a Taiwanese political scientist. Since the survey was first carried out in 2001, it has been expanded to cover 19 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.
The passing of Dr. Chu is a great loss to the IPSAS and the international social sciences community. Dr. Chu had made immense contributions to the development of Taiwan’s political science, as well as academic cooperation between Taiwan and the international community. His commitment to the discipline and the broader society will be sorely missed. These achievements and legacy will be commemorated by Taiwanese political scientists and his international colleagues.
