Mei-Yin Chou

Mei-Yin Chou (; born 1958) is a Taiwanese physicist who has been vice president of Academia Sinica since 2016. She is a specialist in condensed matter physics and solid-state physics.

Education Chou graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in physics in 1980. She then completed advanced studies in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her Master of Science (M.S.) in physics in 1983 and her Ph.D. in physics in 1986. Her doctoral dissertation, completed under physics professor Marvin L. Cohen, was titled, "Electrons in Solids and Clusters". She published 12 academic papers before she completed her doctorate at Berkeley.

Acadenic career After receiving her doctorate, Chou completed postdoctoral research with Exxon, and joined the Georgia Institute of Technology faculty in 1989. Chou received a two-year fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation between 1990 and 1992, as well as a five-year fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (1990–1995).

Chou became an associate professor at Georgia Tech in 1993, and was promoted to full professor in 1998. Chou held the Advance Professorship in Science from 2002 to 2006, and chaired the physics department between 2005 and 2010. She returned to Taiwan to assume the directorship of the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences at Academia Sinica, and took a joint adjunct professorship at National Taiwan University.

In 2013, Chou was awarded the Outstanding Award of the Taiwan Outstanding Women in Science Awards.

She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2002, and elected to membership within Academia Sinica in 2014. After Kuo Way withdrew from consideration and James C. Liao was selected, Chou was appointed one of three vice presidents. Chou remained in the running until the final round of five candidates.

Personal life Chou is married to Ye-Hwa Evan Chen. They have a son and a daughter; her son earned a master's degree from the University of Washington and her daughter graduated from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics.