Plowing Deep in the Field of Earthquake Studies, Kuo-Chen Hao Flipped His Life
Associate Professor Kuo-Chen Hao from the Department of Earth Sciences dedicates himself to the study of the lithosphere, lithospheric structures, and seismic activities of the lithosphere.
Kuo-Chen Hao, winner of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Wu Ta-You Memorial Award 2016, is the associate professor of the Department of Earth Sciences at NCU. He dedicates himself to studying the structures and seismic activities of the lithosphere. It has been ten years since he began to conduct research on the Taiwan orogeny when studying in the PhD program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The study area of by Dr. Kuo-Chen ranges from the whole island of Taiwan to the adjacent areas in the Taiwan Strait and eastern China.
Dedicated to Research and Proficient in Seismology
Dr. Kuo-Chen’s current research focus is structural seismology. He investigates the subsurface structures by using seismic tomography, which is similar to the CAT scan imaging in medical applications. His current research project, sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, is on fault geometries and tectonics. This research is being carried out in the Longitudinal Valley in eastern Taiwan. Dr. Kuo-Chen expects to resolve the fault geometries and understand how they related to the tectonic environment, and further evaluate the regions with potential seismic risks in the study area.
Dr. Kuo-Chen is also the convener of the Commission of Education and Promotion at the Taiwan Earthquake Research Center (TEC), which endeavors to promote the popularization of scientific education. When large earthquakes take place in Taiwan or elsewhere in the world, the aim of the commission is to provide relevant information about the event to the public within one day. In order to reduce the fear of disasters, prevent disasters, and mitigate disasters, Dr. Kuo-Chen, through TEC, raises citizen awareness of the areas with potential seismic hazards in Taiwan. In order to raise the public’s level of basic knowledge of seismology in Taiwan, Dr. Kuo-Chen has published articles in and has been interviewed by popular science journals as Science Monthly and Scientific American.
Tremendous catches from the Immense Ocean of Learning
Dr. Kuo-Chen had been faced with crossroads in his career after graduating from college and his Master’s program, and he now advises students that they, too, should have discussions with as many professors as possible when being faced with hard career choices or difficulties. Students could even regard their professors as their reference figures. He considers that college learning is of crucial importance in the development of a person’s life since it serves to cultivate one’s thinking ability, and the knowledge acquired in this phase of life also affects family and interpersonal relationships in the future.
Dr. Kuo-Chen’s PhD program advisor back in the United States has always been a mentor and friend to him. His advisor’s words that “Do not always follow teachers’ ideas or words” impacted him the most deeply.Those words showed him that independent thinking is one of the required abilities for perusing a career in scientific research. With these words, Dr. Kuo-Chen encourages students to reflect on problems and their answers, and not to take textbook theories and data unconditionally as truth.
