How a Student Exchange is Building a Research Pipeline from Taipei to Chicago
The UChicago-Taiwan Student Exchange builds lasting research connections between faculty on both sides, and a growing number of Taiwanese fellows are returning to UChicago as PhD students and researchers.
Since its launch in 2023, the UChicago-Taiwan Student Exchange (UCTS)Opens in new tab program has grown from 18 fellows to 47 in 2026, with over 100 principal investigators from Taiwan and more than 60 from the University of Chicago participating since launch. The program builds research collaboration between UChicago faculty and Taiwan’s leading research institutions, while giving undergraduates the chance to conduct research in a new cultural context and gain a global perspective as they shape their post-graduation plans. The program has not only resulted in a number of collaborative research projects, but several students from Taiwan have now joined the UChicago community full-time.
Historic Ties with Taiwan
Taiwan is an important partner for the University of Chicago, with strengths in fields including materials science, engineering, and advanced technologies, supported by sustained national investment in scientific research. Its role in global semiconductor production and its growing economic ties with the United States underscore the value of strengthening academic and research collaboration between the two.
The connection also runs deep at UChicago: Yuan T. LeeOpens in new tab, Taiwan’s first Nobel laureate, began his academic career here in 1968 as an assistant professor in the Department of ChemistryOpens in new tab and the James Franck InstituteOpens in new tab, and he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986. Lee earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees at National Taiwan University (NTU)Opens in new tab.
Flash forward to 2023, when quantum physicist and UChicago professor Cheng ChinOpens in new tab, himself an NTU alumnus, founded UCTS to build on that legacy. The first cohort focused on physics, astronomy, and quantum science, and the program has since expanded to basic sciences, engineering, and biomedical research. Participating institutions include NTU, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU)Opens in new tab, and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)Opens in new tab, the leading universities in Taiwan, as well as Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top national government research institution.
Top Taiwanese Students Join (and Return to) the UChicago Community
Each summer, UCTS fellows spend eight to ten weeks embedded in a host lab as working members of the research team, collaborating with faculty, postdocs, and PhD students on a project of their own. In Chicago, fellows live together in UChicago dorms and take part in campus life. From lab group meetings to museum outings and a Cubs game, the summer is as much about cultural exchange as it is about research.
Fellows were hosted this summer by more than 35 UChicago faculty across 12 departments, from RadiologyOpens in new tab and Chemistry to Computer ScienceOpens in new tab and the Booth School of BusinessOpens in new tab.
From the 2025 cohort of 29 fellows alone, four returned to UChicago in substantive roles: Wei-Kai "Walker" Shao and Mei-Chuan "Mabel" Peng as Chemistry PhD students, Yun-Chi "Yuki" Chen as a PME PhD student, and Yi-Chia "Stacey" Huang as a research technician in the biology lab where she completed her fellowship.
Chin said the way those connections have deepened has been the biggest surprise.
“When we started UCTS in 2023, I hoped to create meaningful research opportunities for students and connections between researchers in Taiwan and at UChicago,” he said. “What has surprised me most now is how quickly these connections have grown into lasting academic relationships, friendships, and new career opportunities for the students that extend well beyond the summer.”
Those returns reflect PI relationships that the program actively builds. Peng's path is illustrative: a life sciences student at NTHU, she found the UCTS program while searching for research internships and reached out directly to Professor Yamuna KrishnanOpens in new tab, whose lab works on quantitative chemical biosensors and live-cell imaging. Krishnan responded quickly. The two discovered a shared research interest in mitochondrial biology, and Peng spent the summer in the lab before returning this fall as a PhD student.
"No, I don't think so," she said, when asked whether she would have ended up at UChicago without the fellowship. "That would have been very difficult... The connection is really important."
The relationship has continued: in 2026, another UCTS fellow, Roy Lin from NTU, joined Krishnan's lab for the summer, the same PI connection now in its second consecutive year of producing fellows.
Shao's trajectory illustrates the program's capacity to identify and recruit researchers who might not otherwise find their way to UChicago. Having spent his undergraduate years at NCKU building a foundation across both chemistry and intelligence computing, Shao arrived in summer 2025 with a specific research direction — AI applied to computational chemistry and materials discovery — that he had struggled to pursue in Taiwan.
"Very few professors in Taiwan have this kind of knowledge, combining AI with chemistry," he said. "UChicago chemistry is famous for its theoretical and computational work. I can learn a lot here."
Part of what clarified his path was an assignment from his supervisor, Professor Greg EngelOpens in new tab, Department of Chemistry and UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, who asked Shao to conduct coffee chats with PhD students and faculty about why they had chosen their programs and research groups.
"This exercise provided me with a much clearer vision for my future career path," Shao wrote in his program report.
By the end of the summer, both Engel and Chin had encouraged him to apply to doctoral programs directly. Shao is now in the lab of Professor Laura GagliardiOpens in new tab, where he also helped to orient this year's cohort.
The program's returns extend beyond doctoral enrollment. Huang came back to Chicago as a research technician in the lab of Assistant Professor of Medicine Simon SchworerOpens in new tab, where she had researched the tumor microenvironment and cancer-associated fibroblasts as a fellow, a deliberate step toward clarifying her own research commitments.
In her fellowship report, written before she had decided to return, Huang described the summer as having "reignited my passion for research," adding that she sincerely hoped to one day return to "such an excellent research environment."
She did. What draws fellows back, across all outcomes, is something she also identified plainly: "Students in Taiwan tend not to express our thoughts. Our professors normally won't take that seriously. But here, the professor will openly discuss [it] with you and will probably accept the opinion if it's good enough."
Po-Chun HsuOpens in new tab, Assistant Professor at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the program's director, sees this as central to what UCTS delivers. "UChicago has the spirit of being free and critical of scientific research," Hsu said. "It's very rewarding to convey those things to students.
The 2026 cohort also marks a deliberate expansion of the program's disciplinary reach. Chi-Chao Hung, an economics student from NTU, became the first UCTS fellow placed in a social sciences lab, working with Professor Chang-Tai Hsieh at the Booth School of Business.
"We are very happy to see we have a Booth School student this year," Hsu said. "We will definitely follow up about how we can better attract more social science and business students."
Two-Way Exchange: UChicago Students in Taiwan
UCTS also runs in the other direction. This summer, eight UChicago undergraduates conducted research in Taiwanese labs. Fourth-year Melanie Vazquez-Pita spent 11 weeks in a photonics lab at NCKU, using spectroscopy to identify single-atom-thick layers of semiconductor material on the way toward a nano-laser. Third-year Senna Schultz, who had never done research before, spent six weeks at NTHU helping develop flexible, self-healing materials that can sense touch like human skin.
Past fellows have kept the connection going: Ingrid Appen, UCTS ‘24, who studied bacteria for self-healing concrete in an NTU environmental engineering lab, is now back in Taiwan on a Fulbright, teaching English in Yilan County before she begins a chemical engineering PhD.
What began as one faculty member’s interest in connecting with Taiwan’s top institutions and creating a platform for student mobility is now drawing some of Taiwan’s most promising young researchers into UChicago’s graduate community and building lifelong ties between UChicago students and the region.
Learn more about the UCTS Program on their website.