Echopedia

Dr. Ching-Tsang Hou (侯景滄博士)

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Dr. Ching-Tsang Hou (侯景滄博士)

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Dr. Ching-Tsang Hou
  • Chinese: 侯景滄博士
  • Era: 1935
  • Geography: Chiayi, Taiwan
  • Core roles: entrepreneur, scientist
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

A Chiayi-born agricultural chemist, Dr. Ching-Tsang Hou built a four-decade research career in US industrial and federal laboratories — from the USDA Northern Regional Research Laboratories through Exxon Research and the Squibb Institute — before leading a research area at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria. He received the American Oil Chemists Society Biotechnology Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

Education

  • National Taiwan Univ. — 1958 — B.S., Agricultural Chemistry
  • Tokyo Univ. — 1964 — M.S., Agricultural Chemistry
  • Tokyo Univ. — 1967 — Ph.D., Agricultural Chemistry

Employment

  • Northern Regional Research Laboratories — National Research Council Research Associate — (1969-1971) — Exxon Research Center, Annandale, NJ — Principal Investigator — (1971-1986) — Dept. of Microbial Biochemistry and Genetics/Natural Products, Squibb Institute for Medical Research, Princeton, NJ — Director — (1986-1988) — National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, ARS, USDA, Peoria, IL — Lead Scientist — (1989-) — Biochemistry and Biotechnology Area, US-Japan — US Side Chairperson — (1999-) — Community — American Oil Chemists Society Foundation — Vice Chairperson — International Society of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology — Founding President — Journal of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology — Editor-in-Chief

Timeline

  • 1935 — born in Chiayi, Taiwan
  • 1958 — B.S., Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan Univ.
  • 1964 / 1967 — M.S. / Ph.D., Agricultural Chemistry, Tokyo Univ.
  • 1969–1971 — National Research Council Research Associate, Northern Regional Research Laboratories
  • 1971–1986 — Principal Investigator, Exxon Research Center, Annandale, NJ
  • 1986–1988 — Director, Dept. of Microbial Biochemistry and Genetics/Natural Products, Squibb Institute for Medical Research, Princeton, NJ
  • 1989– — Lead Scientist, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, ARS, USDA, Peoria, IL
  • 1999– — US Side Chairperson, Biochemistry and Biotechnology Area, US-Japan program
  • 2015-01-23 — published his eightieth-birthday memoir 八十自述：出生在台灣 從日本人，中國人，到美國人 (Eighty Years-Old Memoir: Born in Taiwan, from Japanese, Chinese, to American) in the TAH story corpus: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories183|TAH #183]] (vault copy; full text stays in the vault). The memoir’s framing — one life spanning three citizenships on one island — is his own account of the 1935-Chiayi generation; consistent with the 1935 birth year above (2015 − 1935 = 80).
  • 2015-01-22 — English edition of the same memoir carried in the story corpus: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/68345-eng|TAH #68345 (English edition)]]; its record dates publication 2015-01-22. HOLD: publication-date conflict — the English-edition record says 2015-01-22, the Chinese-edition record says 2015-01-23; not auto-merged.

Role in the Community

  • Left his personal papers with the TAH archive as a donated collection: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/collection-of-dr-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #58, Collection of Dr. Ching-Tsang Hou 侯景滄博士的收藏]].
  • His memoir [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories183|TAH #183, 八十自述 (2015)]] is held by the community as first-person movement-era history, alongside the encyclopedia records [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/58-dr-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #58]] and [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whos-who-1837-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #1837]].
  • The memoir also reached the corpus in English translation as [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/68345-eng|TAH #68345]], so both language editions of his 八十自述 are indexed under his name — his account of “從日本人，中國人，到美國人” is one of the corpus’s first-person framings of the 1935 Chiayi generation’s citizenship transitions.

Recognition & Service

  • American Oil Chemists Society Foundation — Vice Chairperson
  • International Society of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology — Founding President
  • Journal of Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology — Editor-in-Chief
  • 2000 — AOCS Biotechnology Lifetime Achievement Award (vault record: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/american-oil-chemists-society-biotechnology-lifetime-achievement-award-ching-tsa|TAH #60]])

Family

  • Wife: Manhua Chen (陳滿華)
  • Daughter: 思嘉,思娟,思寧

Sources

Honours & Archival Record (vault-internal)

  • 2000 — American Oil Chemists Society, Biotechnology Lifetime Achievement Award — recorded in the vault: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/american-oil-chemists-society-biotechnology-lifetime-achievement-award-ching-tsa|TAH #60, AOCS Biotechnology Lifetime Achievement Award]]
  • Personal papers held in the TAH story corpus: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/collection-of-dr-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #58, Collection of Dr. Ching-Tsang Hou 侯景滄博士的收藏]]
  • Encyclopedia entries: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/58-dr-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #58 encyclopedia]] · [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whos-who-1837-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #1837 encyclopedia]]
  • |TAH Foundation
  • |taiwaneseamericanhistory.org
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/american-oil-chemists-society-biotechnology-lifetime-achievement-award-ching-tsa|TAH #60 — AOCS award record]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/collection-of-dr-ching-tsang-hou|TAH #58 — collection record]]

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