23rd WOC Tainan, Taiwan
Professor Nean Lee
Professor Lee was awarded the WOCT Medal for Science. She is the foremost orchid research scientist in Taiwan and helped initiate the island's modern orchid industry. She has worked on Pleione, Cymbidium, and Calanthe, but her main focus has been on improving the breeding, germination, and production of Phalaenopsis. During her career, she has supervised many students and published numerous scientific papers on orchids. Prof. Lee retired from the National Taiwan University in 2002.
Dr. Chia-Wei Li
Professor Li was presented with the WOCT Medal for Conservation. Dr. Chia-Wei Li was a researcher at the Department of Life Science at National Tsing Hua University and has been the CEO of the Dr Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Centre (KBCC) since it opened in 2007. KBCC conserves and researches tropical and sub-tropical plants, including many orchids, and participates in and coordinates international academic conferences and training courses. He has authored several national and international publications. Prof. Li has been a great supporter of Taiwan World Orchid Conferences and was extensively involved in several projects of the virtual WOC in 2021.
Professor Harold Koopowitz
Professor Koopowitz was awarded the WOCT Medal for Horticulture. Dr. Koopowitz was a professor at the University of California at Irvine and is now a professor emeritus of biology at UCI. He is very well known internationally for his innovative breeding of Paphiopedilum. He is Editor Emeritus for the Orchid Digest, which he edited for ten years and has written hundreds of books and papers on conservation, horticulture and tropical Slipper Orchids. Most recently, he has become renowned for his ‘Orchid Tales’.
