簡史 History

Research and education of the atmospheric sciences have a long history at the National Central University. Originally the atmospheric science was just one of the research branches in the Institute of Geophysics, which was the first founded Institute when the University was reestablished in Taiwan in 1962. The rapid advances of the atmospheric and space sciences in the 60s’ called for establishing an independent academic program to reflect the trend and to meet the challenges. Thus the Department of Atmospheric Physics, the first of its kind in all universities in Taiwan, was founded in 1968. Ten years later, the first graduate Institute of Atmospheric Sciences in Taiwan – “the Institute of Atmospheric Physics”, was established. In 1990, the name of the department was changed to “Atmospheric Sciences”. At the same time, the space science program was spun off from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics to form the Institute of Space Science. Since 1998, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics have become two core members of the College of Earth Sciences, which is also the first of its kind in Taiwan.