News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　Jointly organized by National Chiayi University and Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry (TSMS), the 17th Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Conference took place on the Lantan campus of NCYU from September 1st to 3rd. It was atttended by more than 450 attendees from 33 universities, six research institutes and six government agencies (including the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Council of Agriculture, Council of Indigenous Peoples, Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Administration, Investigation Bureau and Public Health Bureau). The symposium was expected to provide a platform to facilitate exchange between mass spectrometry professionals and the industry, build momentum for research, and promote the research and development of mass spectrometry in Taiwan.

　　In his opening remarks, NCYU President Chyung Ay indicated that the TSMS annual conference contributes enormously to Taiwan’s mass spectrometry research ranging from clinical biomedicine, food safety to drug metabolism analysis. Thanks to profound studies by experts, scholars and researchers, traditional instruments have been gradually replaced by, for instance, chromatographs, which exhibit distinctly higher sensitivity and accuracy than their predecessors. President Ay invited all to visit the beautiful campus of NCYU, and taste the fresh milk yogurt, ice cream and other famous agricultural products made during internship. You may also enjoy the breathtaking landscapes of mountains and rivers around Chiayi City along the way.

　　This year marked the 17th edition of the Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Conference. As Covid-19 has swept the world this year, a large number of large-scale events or gatherings have been cancelled or postponed around the globe. The Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry Annual Conference is the first physical conference on mass spectrometry ever held worldwide by an educational institute this year. The three-day conference was hosted by NCYU Prof. Gu Guo-Long, and chaired by Chien-Chen Lai, Standing Director and Member of TSMS and Professor of National Chung Hsing University. The application of mass spectrometry was discussed from eleven perspectives, including clinical and biomedical applications, glucides and lipids, food safety and food science, environment and toxicants, protein bodies, drug and metabolic analysis, the inorganic and materials, mass spectrometry information, biological information and software, mass spectrometry basics, as well as instrumentation and methodology. The event featured four keynote speeches, 45 special lectures, 12 student oral presentations and a poster contest with nearly 100 entries. A total of 20 manufacturers, instrument and equipment vendors, commercial testing instrument manufacturers and other service providers introduced cutting-edge technologies and exhibited the latest commercial testing instruments.

　　During the symposium, special recognition was given to outstanding scholars and practitioners of mass spectrometry, including Dr. Yu-Ju Chen, Acting Director and Research Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica; Hsu Cheng-Chih, Assistant Professor of the Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University; Derren Lee, Chairman of Agilent Technologies World Trade, Inc.; Song Zheming, Manager of SGS Taiwan Limited; and Yu Yu-Shan, Division Chief of the Office of Food and Drug Safety, Taichung City.