Echopedia

Prof. Shutsung Liao (廖述宗教授)

7 min read

Prof. Shutsung Liao (廖述宗教授)

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Prof. Shutsung Liao
  • Chinese: 廖述宗教授
  • Era: 1931-2015
  • Geography: Tainan, Taiwan
  • Core roles: scientist, professor, educator
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

Accomplishment

  1. The Founding President of the North America Taiwanese Professor Association (北美洲台灣人教授協會首任會長) 1980

Education

  • National Taiwan Univ. — 1953 — B.S., Agricultural Chemistry
  • National Taiwan Univ. — 1956 — M.S., Agricultural Chemistry
  • Univ. of Chicago — 1961 — Ph.D., Biochemistry& Molecular Biology

Employment

  • Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Univ. of Chicago — Professor — (1961-) — Community — North America Taiwanese Professor Association — Founding President

Timeline

  • 1931 — Born in Tainan, Taiwan.
  • 1953 — B.S., Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan Univ.
  • 1956 — M.S., Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan Univ.
  • 1961 — Ph.D., Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Univ. of Chicago; joined the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology there as Professor.
  • 1980 — Founding President, North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association (北美洲台灣人教授協會).
  • 1970s (pre-NATPA) — His University of Chicago home served as the meeting place for Chicago Taiwanese community events before the 台灣同鄉會 had a hall or funds; the university’s International House hosted the annual meetings instead ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/our-journeys-378|Our Journeys #378]]).
  • 1989 — As a past president, joined the NATPA election-monitoring delegation (觀選團) to Taiwan with 陳文彥、張旭成、林宗光; the delegation issued a statement criticizing KMT abuse of public power during the 立委/縣市長 elections ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys47|Our Journeys #47]]).
  • 2015 — Died. NATPA later established the Professor Liao Shutsung Memorial Award in his honor.

Network

Vault Cross-check (deepen pass 2026-09-10)

Role in the Community (deepen pass 2026-10-09)

  • He wrote the movement’s own record. NATPA’s own history came from his pen: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys69|Our Journeys #69 北美洲台灣人教授協會]] (English version: History of NATPA). Memoir essays of his in the corpus: 392. 食果籽,拜樹頭 (2012, 傳記), 98. 千里姻緣 (2014), and 194. 陳文成案件 (2015) — his account of the Chen Wen-chen case.
  • Profiled and mourned in the corpus. 楊遠薰’s biographical essay 101. 生命的執著─芝加哥大學廖述宗教授的故事; 廖敏惠’s tribute memoir 766. 懷念三哥廖述宗教授 (2020) (addressed as 三哥; sibling relation to this page unconfirmed); memorial-service record 03) and photo album 25. In memory of Prof. Shutsung Liao.
  • Community underwriter. Corpus memoirs show him repeatedly funding and hosting movement activity: opening his Chicago home as meeting space (see Timeline, 1970s); NATPA fund plus his personal gift helped finance the 世界台灣人美術展覽 ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys256|Our Journeys #256]] acknowledgments); as 慈淵基金會 負責人 he doubled a performance’s production grant so the Chicago Taiwanese culture association could expand to nationwide activities ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys167|Our Journeys #167]]).
  • His memorial award’s public life. Award record in the Care-for-Taiwan series: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys129|Our Journeys #129 — NATPA Professor Liao Shutsung Memorial Award]]; in-vault press coverage of recipients: 2015 first-award announcement, 2018: 林昶佐, 2021: 罷韓四君子 (青年貢獻獎, US$10,000, 第7屆; Wecare高雄’s 尹立、張博洋、陳冠榮、李佾潔 — award announcement).
  • Award structure, as documented in the 2020 call for nominations. The NATPA 「廖述宗教授紀念基金」 grants at most two prizes per year from the fund he inspired: (A) 長期貢獻獎 and (B) 青年貢獻獎 (for nominees under 50), US$10,000 each, judged by a 7-member committee, with nominations open each November and dossiers valid three years (2020 第6屆 call for nominations). Eligibility is explicitly tied to defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, social justice, democracy/human rights, Taiwanese culture, or sustainable development.
  • Recipient noted in-corpus via author bio: essayist 余杰’s byline credits a 「北美台灣人教授協會廖述宗教授紀念獎」 among his awards (2022 reprint, 2024 reprint, 2025 reprint) — same byline across three reprints, single-source bio claim, year of award not stated.
  • HOLD — death-date conflict (no merge): three variants now in-corpus: 2015 (TAH Who’s Who, this page’s timeline), 2017 (TAHS 2017 bio), and 2014 (taiwanjustice press: “於2014年過世”). The 2015/03 memorial-service record is consistent with late-2014/early-2015; do not auto-merge.

Family

  • Wife: 郭淑卿
  • Daughter: Jane (廖慈瑛), Tzufen (廖慈芬), Tzuming (廖慈明), May (廖慈卿)

From the record

  • 2020-02-08 — taiwanjustice.net indexes the 2020 call for nominations of the 「NATPA 廖述宗教授紀念獎」 under a dedicated tag page listing this page as its subject — the award in his name had reached its 6th public nomination cycle by 2020 (Tag: 2020年第6屆「NATPA 廖述宗教授紀念獎」接受推薦, 2025-04-22 snapshot; the nomination call itself is here).

Sources

Graph View

Backlinks