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Mineral and Isotope Research Center

In order to promote the cutting-edge development of academic research in Taiwan, the Ministry of Education placed the program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities and announced the first batch of research awards in 1999. The research project “Interpreting the Earth's Evolving Arteries from Minerals and Isotopic Geodynamics” promoted by 13 members of the Department of Geosciences of NCKU  came out as one of the best sixteen research cases of the program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities, which is highly appreciated. 
 
Prof. Shu-Cheng Yu of the Department of Geosciences, pointed out that the research project “Interpreting the Earth's Evolving Arteries from Minerals and Isotopic Geodynamics” will combine the cutting-edge technologies of mineralogy and isotope geochemistry to conduct a number of studies on the dynamic changes of the Earth's material, leading the creation of the field of “Minerals and isotope geodynamics”. Through the promotion of this research project, we planned to establish the "Mineral and Isotope Research Center" in 2000, and combine science education with the national development to  update the existing related courses.
 
The member of the research group mainly comes from National Cheng Kung University. Researchers include well-known scholars from mineralogy, X-ray crystal structure analysis, microscale mineral analysis, petrology, thermodynamics, radioactive and stable isotope geochemistry, ocean chemistry, upper mantle geochemistry, paleomagnetism, science education, natural resource assessment and geostatistics fields.
 
Mineral and isotope geodynamics fully combines the advantages of mineralogy and isotope geochemistry, and it is the best way to study the dynamic evolution of the Earth for hundreds of millions of years. The integration of the field characteristics, personnel and equipment of this research is not only a pioneering work in Taiwan in the early 21st century, but also an extremely innovative and special research combination in the international arena. We are bound to create an excellent academic leading research center with long-term management,  and it is in line with develop guidelines for advanced basic scientific research of Taiwan. The research results can also help human predict future global environmental changes, understand the trends of physical activities, ensure the well-being of human life, and provide important basic reference for research planning of the country.