2026-08-25
Palau Royal Resort, Koror, Palau
On behalf of CAPRI, Li’amanaia Dr. Roannie Ng Shiu, executive director of the Pacific Academy of Sciences and co-director of Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa (Centre for Pacific and Global Health) at University of Auckland, one of CAPRI’s institutional partners, will deliver a featured keynote speech at the 2026 Sustainability Forum and International Conference in Palau on August 25. Held one week prior to the Pacific Islands Forum, the conference, themed “Island Resilience × Global Health,” brings together participants from the governments of Taiwan and Palau, the private sector, academia, foreign missions, and medical students to examine the challenges and opportunities facing Pacific island communities.
Drawing on her expertise in health systems resilience and her co-authorship of CAPRI’s research for the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience on Sustainability and Resilience in Pacific Island Health Systems, Dr. Ng Shiu will deliver a keynote address on climate health and its implications for Pacific island communities.
The conference will also feature a keynote by Chen Chien-jen, former Vice President and Premier of Taiwan, who spoke at CAPRI’s 2023 and 2026 Annual Forums. The event is supported by Fu Jen University, Fubon Group, and Taiwan Mobile. Scholars are invited to submit papers for the conference’s academic sessions, which welcome research related to island resilience, global health, and sustainability.
The event will be livestreamed.
For the full program, call for papers, and registration, please visit the conference website.
Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies; Director, John L. Thornton China Center, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
Ryan Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at Brookings. He is also a senior fellow in the Center for Asia Policy Studies. He was part of the inaugural class of David M. Rubenstein fellows at Brookings, and is a nonresident affiliated fellow in the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. Hass focuses his research and analysis on enhancing policy development on the pressing political, economic, and security challenges facing the United States in East Asia.
From 2013 to 2017, Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the National Security Council (NSC) staff. In that role, he advised President Obama and senior White House officials on all aspects of U.S. policy toward China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and coordinated the implementation of U.S. policy toward this region among U.S. government departments and agencies. He joined President Obama’s state visit delegations in Beijing and Washington respectively in 2014 and 2015, and the president’s delegation to Hangzhou, China, for the G-20 in 2016, and to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meetings in 2016.
Prior to joining NSC, Hass served as a Foreign Service Officer in U.S. Embassy Beijing, where he earned the State Department Director General’s award for impact and originality in reporting, an award given annually to the officer whose reporting had the greatest impact on the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. Hass also served in Embassy Seoul and Embassy Ulaanbaatar, and domestically in the State Department Offices of Taiwan Coordination and Korean Affairs. Hass received multiple Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor commendations during his 15-year tenure in the Foreign Service.
Hass is the author of “Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence” (Yale University Press, 2021), a co-editor of “Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World” (Brookings Press, 2021), of the monograph, “The future of US policy toward China: Recommendations for the Biden administration” (Brookings, 2020), and a co-author of “U.S.-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis?” (Brookings Press, 2023).
Hass was born and raised in Washington state. He graduated from the University of Washington and attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies prior to joining the State Department.
Founder and chair, Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI)
Syaru Shirley Lin is the founder and chair of CAPRI, leading its initiatives to strengthen Asia’s resilience through policy research and cross-sector collaboration. She is also a nonresident faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, and an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof. Lin serves on the steering committee of the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience, launched by the World Economic Forum, and sits on the boards of several global companies and nonprofits, including Langham Hospitality Investments, Goldman Sachs Asia Bank, TE Connectivity, MediaTek, and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. Her book, Taiwan’s China Dilemma, examines how evolving identities shape cross-Strait economic policy. Previously, she was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where she led private equity and venture capital in Asia. She received her Ph.D. and master’s from the University of Hong Kong and her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.
Senior Director and Professor of Practice, LightWorks, Arizona State University
Gary Dirks is senior director, Global Futures Laboratory, and director of LightWorks®, an Arizona State University initiative that capitalizes on ASU’s strengths in solar energy and other light-inspired research. From 2013-2019, he was the director of ASU’s Wrigley Institute. He is also the Julie Wrigley Chair of Sustainable Practices, professor of practice in the School of Sustainability, and distinguished sustainability scientist.
Before joining ASU, Professor Dirks was the president of BP Asia-Pacific and the president of BP China. During his presidency, BP China grew from an operation with fewer than 30 employees and no revenue to more than 1,300 employees and revenues of about $4 billion in 2008.
He received China’s “Friendship Award” in 2003 and received an honorary Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George from the United Kingdom in 2005. In December 2008 he was recognized by the People’s Daily as one of the 10 most influential multinational company leaders of the last 30 years of China’s economic development. In 1999 he received the CLAS Leaders Award for his extraordinary leadership skills while driving positive change locally and internationally by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.
Professor Dirks received a Ph.D. in chemistry from ASU in 1980. He was the first doctoral student to work in the Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis (now the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis).
R. David Edelman is the IPRI Distinguished Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holding appointments in the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab and Center for International Studies and leading research on the governance of artificial intelligence, the geopolitics of technology and telecommunications, and the national security dimensions of computing at the Internet Policy Research Initiative.
His book, “Rethinking Cyber Warfare: The International Relations of Digital Disruption,” will be released by Oxford University Press on May 7, 2024. He is currently writing and engaging on several projects at the intersection of technology, national security, and international economics including the role of AI and digital supply chains in the U.S.-China relationship; escalation and possibilities for restraint of cyber-enabled conflict; the future of trade and global data flows; and the domestic and international governance of AI systems.
For over a decade in government, Edelman advanced many of the U.S. government’s foundational technology policies spanning international cyber policy, internet governance, digital trade, AI, and emerging technologies. He served for six years in the Obama White House, including as special assistant to the president for economic & technology policy on the National Economic Council, director for cybersecurity on the National Security Council, and senior advisor in the Office of Science & Technology Policy. When appointed in 2010, he was the youngest-ever director in the NSC’s 60-year history. Prior to the White House, he began his career as a civil servant at the State Department and helped found the Department’s Office of Cyber Affairs, ultimately serving as lead U.S. negotiator on cybersecurity and digital economy matters at the United Nations and later, the G-20. He was the recipient of multiple superior and meritorious honor awards during his tenure.
In the private sector, he has built public-sector and global strategy teams at leading companies in the AI, robotics, and clean energy sectors; founded an advisory firm helping emerging technology companies and executives navigate geopolitics and cybersecurity risks; invested in a range of venture-backed startups; and appeared as a frequent keynote speaker.
His insights and analysis have appeared in print in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, The Economist, WIRED, Fast Company, Forbes, and Fortune, and in broadcast on NPR, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, and MSNBC. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Edelman holds a bachelor’s from Yale, and a master’s and doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Clarendon Scholar.
Senior Researcher, Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre
Tarcy Sih-Ting Jhou is a senior researcher at the Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC), Tokyo. Her work focuses on regional energy analysis in the Asia Pacific and contributes to the centre’s studies on the long-term energy outlook for the APEC region. Tarcy also focuses on hydrogen analysis and examines emerging developments in Taiwan.
Prior to joining APERC, Tarcy served as a project director at the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan and previously managed the Renewable Energy Project Office. Her experience spans clean energy development, international cooperation, and hydrogen deployment research.
Director, Energy Security and Climate Initiative; Fellow, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
Samantha Gross is the director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative and a fellow in Foreign Policy. Her work is focused on the intersection of energy, environment, and policy, including climate policy and international cooperation, the transition to net-zero emissions energy system, energy geopolitics, and global energy markets.
Gross has more than 25 years of experience in energy and environmental affairs. In 2021, she was a Brookings Robert Bosch Foundation Transatlantic Fellow in Berlin. She has been a visiting fellow at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, where she authored work on clean energy cooperation and on post-Paris climate policy. She was director of the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. In that role she directed U.S. activities under the Clean Energy Ministerial, including the secretariat and initiatives focusing on clean energy implementation and access and energy efficiency. Prior to her time at the Department of Energy, Gross was director of integrated research at IHS CERA. She managed the IHS CERA Climate Change and Clean Energy forum and the IHS relationship with the World Economic Forum. She has also worked at the Government Accountability Office on the natural resources and environment team and as an engineer directing environmental assessment and remediation projects.
Gross appears frequently in the media in the United States and abroad on topics of energy markets, energy security, and the green energy transition.
Gross holds a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, a Master of Science in environmental engineering from Stanford, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
2026-08-25
08:30 a.m.–05:40 p.m. (GMT+9)
Palau Royal Resort, Koror, Palau
Drawing on the findings and policy recommendations from PHSSR research and featuring CAPRI Senior Fellow Nomura Shuhei, this World Economic Forum article outlines priorities to strengthen prevention, early detection, and management of noncommunicable diseases.
On the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) system, CAPRI hosted a hybrid roundtable session to discuss its successes and fragilities.
To mark the launch of CAPRI’s partnership with the Brookings Institution, a closed-door expert roundtable brought together Brookings members and a diverse set of Taiwanese experts to discuss Taiwan’s resilience amid the second Trump administration’s trade and foreign policy shifts, and their broader implications for the Asia Pacific.
