42 New Faculty Join NTNU, Bringing Global Expertise and Academic Strength
NTNU welcomes 42 new faculty members for the 2025 academic year, including 10 international scholars—the highest number of foreign hires in the university’s history. These new faculty bring with them a wide range of international backgrounds, industry expertise, and teaching experience. Their diverse specializations not only enhance NTNU’s academic and research capacity but also contribute to expanding students’ global perspectives and professional opportunities.
Following its selection in 2022 as a Key Cultivation University for Bilingual Education by the Ministry of Education, NTNU advanced in 2024 to become one of four Benchmark Universities in the Bilingual Education for Students in Higher Education Program. In recent years, the number of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) courses has grown steadily, now nearing 1,000 offerings annually. The university has also intensified its recruitment of international faculty, with foreign hires increasing from five in 2022, to eight in 2023, six in 2024, and reaching ten this year. This growth strengthens NTNU’s international learning environment and enhances students’ intercultural competencies.
To welcome the incoming faculty, NTNU hosted its annual Honghu Camp on August 13 and 14. The two-day orientation featured workshops and networking sessions introducing new hires to university resources, faculty responsibilities and rights, and opportunities for cross-departmental collaboration. In his opening remarks, President Cheng-Chih Wu reflected on NTNU’s institutional transformation: once focused primarily on training secondary school educators, NTNU has in recent years become a comprehensive university. Today, approximately 70 percent of graduates enter the private sector, while 30 percent pursue careers in education. President Wu encouraged the new faculty to contribute fresh perspectives to their academic units and to strengthen ties with industry in order to broaden opportunities for students.
The orientation program was jointly led by Vice President for Academic Affairs Mei-Hui Liu, Vice President for Research and Development Ying-Shao Hsu, Division Head Ching-Yi Huang from the Office of Human Resources, and University Librarian Shyue-Cherng Liaw. Topics covered included faculty support systems, academic expectations, rights and responsibilities, evaluation and promotion procedures, and available research and teaching resources.
Vice President Liu highlighted NTNU’s commitment to diversity and internationalization, noting that it is one of four universities in Taiwan designated by the Ministry of Education as a Benchmark University in the Bilingual Education for Students in Higher Education Program. With international students accounting for 12.05 percent of enrollment, NTNU has the highest proportion among Taiwan’s national universities. President Wu added that the university has now developed nearly 1,000 EMI courses, which collectively enroll about 7,000 students each year. He encouraged the incoming faculty to offer more EMI courses and to bring diverse academic viewpoints into the classroom.
This year’s ten international faculty members join academic units across NTNU, bringing international experience and specialized expertise. In the College of Education, Yena Kyeong from South Korea, who earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Riverside, focuses on cross-cultural contexts, intergenerational relationships, and emotion socialization. Nirmin Farid Juber from Indonesia, with a doctorate in public health from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, specializes in population health, epidemiology, and preventive strategies. Lawrence Ka-Kei Ho from Hong Kong, trained in history and sociology, researches policing, crime, and East Asian public administration.
In the College of Science, David Michael Hernandez from the United States, who previously held research appointments at Yale University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, works in astronomy and computational science. He is joined by Hoda Fakour from Iran, whose expertise lies in environmental sustainability, climate change, and soil and water pollution remediation.
The College of Technology and Engineering welcomes Woraphrut Kornmaneesang from Thailand, who specializes in motion control and robotics, and Mohammad Qorbani from Iran, who previously taught for six years at National Taiwan University and conducts research on nanomaterials, semiconductors, two-dimensional optoelectronic materials, and energy conversion devices.
Other international appointments include Aymeric Collart from France, joining the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, who works in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and Austronesian linguistics and will offer courses in corpus linguistics and experimental linguistics; Trong-Nghia Le from Vietnam, who takes up a position in the Department of Chemistry to pursue cancer research and expand EMI course offerings; and Andrew Argue from Canada, who joins the Department of Business Administration after nine years at National Sun Yat-sen University, specializing in organizational theory and strategic management.
NTNU has also appointed new faculty members with substantial industry and teaching experience. Malcolm Sheng-Yuan Lin, who worked for more than 20 years in the electronics industry, now joins the Graduate Institute of AI Interdisciplinary Applications. Ping-Hui Lin, with a decade of service at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, has been appointed to the Department of Physics, reflecting NTNU’s commitment to academic-industry collaboration. Hui Tu, who has taught at the university level for over 20 years, joins the Department of Graphic Arts and Communications, continuing her work in community-oriented design (USR). Po-Yu Wang, a former national rock-climbing athlete, brings expertise in outdoor and adventure education to the Department of Civic Education and Leadership, while Yu-Hsuan Lin, who taught at Taipei Municipal Da’an Vocational High School for ten years, now joins the Undergraduate Program in Vehicle and Energy Engineering, focusing on AI applications in electric vehicles.
Several NTNU alumni have also returned to their alma mater. Ting-Yu Tseng, Ph.D. in Fine Arts, specializes in classical and contemporary aesthetics of calligraphy and painting. Hsiao-Feng Cheng, Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Counseling, works in positive psychology and counseling theory and practice. Min-Jie Hsu, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, conducts research on deep learning, reinforcement learning, cognitive systems, and edge computing. Chun-Ying Liao, an alumna of the College of Teacher Education and now principal of The Affiliated Senior High School of NTNU, is building stronger collaboration between secondary and university-level teaching and research.
With a wide range of academic, international, and industry experience, NTNU’s 42 new faculty members bring new energy to the campus community. Their collective expertise strengthens the university’s research profile, enriches the teaching environment, and supports NTNU’s continuing commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and educational innovation aimed at developing globally competitive talent.