The 86th NTU Anniversary Celebration opened with an official ceremony at the NTU Sports Center on November 15. During the ceremony, the university awarded honorary doctorates, recognized distinguished alumni, and presented Student Social Contribution Awards and Outstanding Youth Awards.

Speaking at the ceremony, NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang noted that while NTU's pursuit of excellence and aspiration to join the ranks of the world's leading universities has produced outstanding accomplishments, Taiwan's society has experienced a continuous series of major problems this year. As a result, he declared, "We should act with positive energy and adopt integrity, responsibility, and compassion as the three principles for how we conduct ourselves in all matters."

The recipients of this year's honorary doctorates were NTU alumni Chen-Ning Franklin Yang and Samuel Yin. Over the course of his eminent career, Dr. Yang has made numerous major contributions that have profoundly impacted the fields of particle physics, statistical physics, condensed matter physics, and quantum field theory. Yang was named co-recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for proving a violation of the law of conservation of parity.

The second recipient, Dr. Yin, has produced integrated corrosion prevention systems and earthquake engineering technologies that have proven important to the advancement of civil engineering and architecture technologies. Moreover, Yin is an accomplished entrepreneur who expanded the Ruentex Financial Group from a traditional textile industry into a major international conglomerate spanning such sectors as construction, retail sales, life insurance, biotechnology, green energy, and medical treatment.

This year's Distinguished Alumni Awards were conferred to nine alumni who have made important contributions to both the university and to the Taiwan society. The award recipients were: (Arts and Humanities) Hsien-Yung Pai of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature and Chao-Tang Chang of the Department of Civil Engineering; (Academics) Norman N. Li of the Department of Chemistry, Tso-Ping Ma of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Mien-Chie Hung of the Department of Chemistry, and Horng-Tzer Yau of the Department of Mathematics; (Corporate Award) Ding-Hua Hu of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Kenneth C. M. Lo of the Department of Economics; and (Public Service) Jin-Huang Chen of the School of Medicine.

During the ceremony, three students who have demonstrated exceptional compassion in working for the public good and caring for society received NTU's Student Social Contribution Awards. They were Teng-Ju Ku of the Department of Social Work, Chia-You Kuo of the Department of Business Administration, and Fang-Ying Lee of the Institute of Health Policy and Management. The university also presented the Outstanding Youth Awards to recognize and encourage students who have shown exceptional moral integrity while producing remarkable learning achievements.