Two Taiwan scholars have won the 23rd Khwarizmi International Award (KIA) for their contribution to the advancement of science, according to Taiwan's top research institute Academia Sinica. Li Hsiang- Nan, a research fellow and deputy director of Academia Sinica's Institute of Physics (IOP) and Cheng Shun-Jen, a research fellow at the Institute of Mathematics (IOM) were presented with the award by Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi at a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 7. The KIA is awarded annually by the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) which is affiliated to Iran's Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. It is presented to Iranians and people of other nationalities for outstanding achievements in research, innovation and invention in fields related to science and technology. Li specializes in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD), while Cheng's specializations are Lie algebras, Lie superalgebras and representation theory. The award is named after Abu Jafar Mohammad Ibn Mousa Khwarizmi, an 8th Century Persian mathematician, astronomer and geographer. Last year there were 10 foreign KIA laureates from Germany, Hungry, Australia, India, France, Belgium, Finland, Malaysia, Taiwan and Norway. 