Forty-years ago this July, Wen-Chen Chen, an alum of the U of M Statistics Department (PhD, 1978, Advisor: Bruce Hill) and a faculty member in Carnegie Mellon University's Statistics Department was visiting his family in Taiwan. Shortly before he, his wife and new baby were to leave to return to Pittsburgh, he was detained and interrogated by the police. He never returned home and the next day was found dead. More details about the event and the subsequent attempts to learn the truth about his death can be found in this article.
This past February, the National Taiwan University (NTU) finally dedicated a memorial in Wen-Chen's honor, and recently they approved the following text to be inscribed in the Wen-Chen Chen memorial plaza: “In memoriam of a hero who unyieldingly resisted state violence.”
This coming July 1-2 a symposium to honor the memory of Wen-Chen will be held in Taiwan (which is exactly 12 hours ahead of Ann Arbor, e.g., 9am July 1 in Taiwan is 9pm June 30 in Ann Arbor). The web site with further information about the conference can be found at http://www.ncts.ntu.edu.tw/events_2_detail.php?nid=314.
