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From 2011.igem.org

National Yang-Ming University (chinese:陽明大學)is a research university located on Qilian mountain in Taipei, Taiwan.

We enjoy a beautiful landscape with plenty of plants and trees;

this results in a tranquil environment and peaceful atmosphere. 

When the night falls, we can see the lights in Taipei and the stars in the sky clearly from here.

Yang Ming University was known for its academic programs related to Medicine, 

Life Sciences and Biotechnology, besides, it was placed 4th among universities in Taiwan and 2nd in the field

of Life Science & Biomedicine in the 2010 QS Asian Universities Rankings.

Brief History

Founded in 1974, National Yang-Ming University, formerly known as National Yang-Ming College of Medicine, has been adhering to the school motto of "benevolent mind and art, putting knowledge into practice" while training excellent humane doctors to provide service by solving medical problems in remote and rural areas.

Graduated in 1982, the first government-sponsored class of the Faculty of Medicine was sent to public clinics and hospitals. Since then, our graduates have penetrated all corners of Taiwan and became pioneers in basic healthcare services. As our graduates won warm acclaim from society, we found that we had successfully accomplished our initial mission.

In order to cultivate a new generation of professional medical talents, we began to expand our disciplines into biomedicine. In 1994, we were promoted to "National Yang-Ming University" and became the first medicine-oriented comprehensive university in Taiwan. As time went on, we established the School of Medical Technology and Engineering, the School of Life Sciences, the Center for General Studies, and the School of Nursing. Finally, we were permitted to establish a School of Dentistry in 2000 and also became a research university focusing on medicine and biotechnology.

We have been endeavoring to develop academic research since our establishment. Based on our school motto: "benevolent mind and art, putting knowledge into practice," we expect ourselves to both pursue academic excellence and be concerned for humanity. Thus, we have been enthusiastic at pursuing new knowledge, and apply it to teaching and research; this has led to the establishment of an extraordinary culture and an excellent tradition in academic research.

In the area of teaching, we aim to develop our students' self-learning and independent thinking skills in accordance with our explicit educational philosophy of attempting to cultivate leaders with a sound fundamental knowledge, strong humanistic concerns and critical thinking ability. In the past 30 years, we have trained many excellent doctors who have worked in remote areas and contributed significantly to the development of society; on the other hand, we have also trained excellent biomedical researchers who make very important contributions to the future of the country. Many of the active leaders in the field of biomedical science are our alumni.

In the area of research, we have been awarded the Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities for results in our top two research fields of Genetics and Brain Research. Additionally, with respect to interdisciplinary research, we have participated in the Megabase Human Genome Sequencing, constructed the BAC contig map of human chromosome 4 and sequenced the chimp's chromosome 22. Thanks to our outstanding accomplishments, we have recently been accredited as a research university by the Ministry of Education. Moreover, according to Academia Sinica 2005, we are ranked top in both the quality and quantity of research publications, as well as average faculty productivity among all universities in Taiwan. The report of Chiao Tung University, Shanghai, published in the same year, gave the same result.

Our success is no coincidence but an attribute of excellent allocation of limited resources and the devoted efforts of both the faculty and students, all of which were needed to achieve "brilliant results in teaching and research" within such a short period of time. Due to our research atmosphere, academic accomplishments, innovative knowledge and cultivation of talent, we have well demonstrated our standing as a top university.

In the future, we will continue to make good use of our accumulated capacity in teaching and research to educate and train future experts and leaders in the discipline of biomedicine. We will further develop the field of biomedicine that has won international attention and thus begin about a new era in education and research at the top international level.