The Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering at National Taiwan University (NTU) began planning its establishment in 1994 and received approval from the Ministry of Education in 2001. Officially founded on August 1, 2002, the institute is a national leader in the field of polymer development and research. It was also the first research institute in Taiwan dedicated to polymer studies. The inaugural director was Professor Kuo-Huang Hsieh, and the institute initially admitted five doctoral students and thirteen master's students.
At its inception, all faculty members were jointly appointed, and the institute lacked its own facilities. Graduate students and laboratories were distributed across the original departments of the faculty members. The institute's administrative office was temporarily located on the third floor of Chih-Hung Hall in the College of Engineering. Despite these limited resources, under the leadership of Director Hsieh, the institute successfully launched its courses and research programs.
In July 2003, the institute relocated to the rear building of the Jan-Shu Hall. In August of the same year, Professor Ching-I Huang became the first Professor. The Jan-Shu Hall, formerly the National Institute for Compilation and Translation, initially provided the institute with space from the basement to the second floor. By the end of 2004, the institute expanded its facilities to the fourth floor. The building layout included administrative and academic spaces, laboratories for faculty members, and a shared instrumentation room equipped with devices such as a transmission electron microscope, offering robust support for NTU researchers in polymer science.
In 2005, under the leadership of Director Wen-Chang Chen, the institute acquired advanced equipment for research, including a scanning electron microscope and an atomic force microscope, further enhancing the shared instrumentation room. The institute also recruited several specialized faculty members: Professor Jiang-Jen Lin in 2005, Professor Guey-Sheng Liou in 2007, Professor Shih-Huang Tung in 2008, and Professor Shan-Hui Hsu in 2009. During the tenure of Director Jiang-Jen Lin, who took office in 2011, Professor Ru-Jong Jeng joined the institute, contributing to its continued growth. Professor Shan-Hui Hsu became the director in 2014, followed by the recruitment of Professor Yu-Ying Lai in 2016 and Professor Yi-Cheun Yeh in 2018, bringing the total number of faculty professors to seven. In 2020, Professor Ru-Jong Jeng assumed the position of the fifth director.
In terms of academic activities, the institute organized the Polymer Joint Conference in 2007 and gradually expanded its international academic exchanges. It held the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Symposium in April 2009 and the Cross-Strait Symposium on Frontier Polymer Science and Applications in March 2011. In 2019, the institute hosted the Polymer Annual Meeting and the Federation of Asian Polymer Societies (FAPS 2019) Conference, while actively promoting international collaborations and researcher exchanges. The institute’s dedication to education and talent development has been recognized through its accreditation under Engineering Accreditation Certification (EAC) in 2008, 2010, and 2017.
With successive directors striving to secure more faculty and space, the institute continues to enhance its teaching and research capabilities. It aspires to become one of the leading institutions in Taiwan for nurturing top-tier talent in polymer science and technology.
Successive Director
