Nov. 19, 2014

It is with greatest sadness that I am passing on the news that our dear colleague and AOS graduate alumnus Chia Chou has passed away from cancer, Nov. 19, 2014, at the National Taiwan University Hospital.

Chia completed his PhD in 1997 here at UCLA, working with me on tropical atmospheric modeling and, was a Research Fellow at the Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, with affiliations at the National Taiwan University in National Central University. He is well known internationally for his contributions to understanding precipitation change under global warming and other topics in tropical climate dynamics. He had received the Ta-You Wu Commemorative Award of the National Science Council for scientists younger than 40 of all fields in Taiwan and the Outstanding Research Award of the National Science Council of Taiwan, and had served on the Scientific Steering Group of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment.

In addition to an academic leader, Chia was a wonderful person, full of life and boundless good humor, and a joy to interact with. Chia had worked closely with Kuo-Nan Liou on key activities such as the director search for RCEC, and maintained close ties to many of us in his visits to the US. It was a great privilege to have been able to work with him over these years, and to watch him grow from an enthusiastic PhD student to the talented and energetic research leader he became. His loss will be felt deeply.