Woei-Yann Pauchy Hwang
Woei-Yann Pauchy Hwang, a nuclear physicist turned cosmologist known for his significant contributions in weak interaction physics and in promoting physics research and education in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region, died unexpectedly in Taipei on May 6, 2018.
Pauchy was born in Miaoli, a rural region in Taiwan, on August 25, 1948. Run over by a truck in an accident, Pauchy lost his right leg at age 10. With tremendous determination and perseverance, Pauchy overcame his severe physical limitations and was admitted to the physics department of National Taiwan University for his undergraduate study. After earning his BS degree in 1971, Pauchy became a doctoral student of Henry Primakoff at the University of Pennsylvania. In a series of three seminal papers, Pauchy and Primakoff presented their pioneering work on using muon capture to test the conserved vector current hypothesis and second class currents.
After receiving his PhD in physics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1977, Pauchy became a postdoc of Ernest Henley at the University of Washington from 1978 to 1981. The life-long friendship and collaboration between Henley and Pauchy resulted in over 25 joint publications covering topics ranging from parity violation in weak interactions to QCD sum rules. Pauchy moved to Indiana University in 1981, becoming an associate professor in 1984. He joined National Taiwan University (NTU) as a full professor of physics in 1988.
At NTU, Pauchy pursued many different activities with great enthusiasm and style. In addition to supervising a large number of talented graduate students, Pauchy tirelessly initiated and promoted international collaborations. He organized many conferences including the first International Symposium on “Symmetries in Subatomic Physics” in 1994, which has turned into a regular conference series. As a recipient of the Humboldt Fellowship in 1990-91, Pauchy worked with Joseph Speth and Gerry Brown to elucidate the role of meson cloud in describing the flavor asymmetry of nucleon’s sea. Pauchy was very proud of his collaboration with Ta-You Wu, a former teacher of TD Lee and CN Yang, resulting in the publication of the monograph “Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Fields” in 1991. Pauchy also played a major role in the advancement of frontier research in theoretical physics in Taiwan, leading to the establishment of the National Center for Theoretical Sciences in 1997.
During his 4-year term as the NTU physics department Chair (1997-2001), Pauchy spared no effort to build up a strong department, including the recruitment of 10 junior faculties and the completion of the construction of its new building. In 2000, Pauchy led Taiwan’s astrophysics and high energy physics communities to establish the Center for Academic Excellence on Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (CosPA). This marked the beginning of a concerted effort in Taiwan to pursue cosmology. As part of the program of this Center, Pauchy launched a new conference series, the CosPA Symposia, in 2002, which, for the first time, provided a forum among cosmology and particle astrophysics colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region, now being held annually in different Asia-Pacific regions.
Pauchy suffered a near-fatal stroke in 2004. He fought courageously and recovered remarkably from it. Although he lost control of his right-hand fingers, Pauchy remained active in the next 14 years of his life. Concurrent with the buildup of research in cosmology in the region, the Asia-Pacific Organization for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (APCosPA.org) was established in 2011 and Pauchy was elected as its first President (2011-2013).
Pauchy’s contribution to promoting physics in Asia-Pacific was not limited to the fields of cosmology and particle astrophysics. As a Council Member of the Association of Asia-Pacific Physics Societies (AAPPS) since its formation in 2001, he served as the Editor-in-Chief of AAPPS Bulletin from 2001 to 2009. In 2013, he initiated a new journal and newsletter, “the Universe”, under APCosPA and served as its Editor-in-Chief ever since.
Pauchy received numerous honors. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2003), three-time recipient of the Outstanding Research Award (National Science Council), National Chair Professorship (1998-2001), Academic Award of Ministry of Education (2004), NTU University Chair Professor (2006-2018), and many others.
Pauchy will be remembered as a remarkable physicist undaunted by severe physical challenges, and as a visionary leader and a devoted promoter of physics in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region. He lived up to the name he invented for himself, “Pauchy”, meaning “embracing misfortune” in Chinese. He will be dearly missed by all who had the good fortune to have known and worked with him.
