Chang Kow-lung

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Chang Kow-lung (張國蘢), born in 1938, is a Taiwanese particle physicist and environmentalist who served as Minister of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) from June 2005 to May 2007.

Education and early work: He studied physics at National Taiwan University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1963 with high honors. He then went to Yale University in the United States, where he earned a PhD in particle physics in 1968 and won the Leigh Page Prize in 1965. He began teaching at National Taiwan University in 1976 and became active in Taiwan’s environmental movement in the 1980s. In 1988 he started the magazine New Environment and in 1990 helped launch the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union. He also worked in public service, including ten years as a secretary in Taipei’s city government, and in 2000 he was named vice minister of examinations. Chang is known as a prominent anti-nuclear activist.

EPA leadership and key actions: Premier Frank Hsieh appointed Chang as EPA head on June 8, 2005. In August 2005 he announced a three-year plan to clean up the polluted Tamsui River. In September 2005 he ordered sanitation companies to stop using kitchen waste in pig feed. He pushed for greenhouse gas emission laws and helped launch a global warming awareness campaign. He supported an ecotax for factories in 2006. In 2006, fellow environmentalist Robin Winkler accused the EPA of favoring industry, and Chang briefly pursued a slander case. Chang resigned from the EPA in May 2007 and was succeeded by Winston Dang in June 2007.