Jien-Wei Yeh is a well-known professor from the Department of Material Science and Engineering at National Tsing Hua University. He is the brains behind quite a number of patents and inventions, of which the most talked about is his innovative concept about metals. For a long time, the commonly used alloy recipes have been based on one main element, with small amounts of other elements added to enhance the properties. However, Professor Yeh stepped outside the proverbial box that has confined metallurgy throughout history. On his own, he proposed an entirely new concept in metal mixology — High-Entropy Alloys (HEA) — and published a series of papers on the topic. HEA became a new field in material science, and after gaining worldwide recognition and a following, Yeh was dubbed the father of HEA. The top scientific journal Nature even did a feature on Yeh, calling him the leader in the field of high-entropy alloys.

The world-renowned researcher likes to take his kids to study the reuse of water resources in his leisure time. He noted that the toxins in the fish tank are traditionally processed by ion-exchange, absorption, or bacteria. However, even with all the methods combined, the owner would still have to change the water frequently. Thus, Yeh decided to develop an efficient and long-lasting method as a solution to the issue. Preferring the road less traveled, he led his kids through 10 years of research to develop a super photocatalytic biofilter. The new technology significantly improves upon the processing efficiency of past photocatalysts, can instantly break down toxins in the water, and is long lasting. He even optimized the technology, making its production scalable to help more people with their water-processing dilemmas.