Yun-han Chu, Taiwan’s leading political scientist and internationally esteemed authority on and advocate for democratization in Asia, received his Ph.D. from the Political Science Department in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota in 1987. That year, he returned to Taiwan and joined the faculty ranks of National Taiwan University. During his tenure, Chu held many prestigious appointments, including director of programs of the Institute of National Policy Research (Taiwan’s leading think tank) and president of Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. He received the country's highest academic honor when he was elected Academician at Academia Sinica in 2012. 

Chu was the lead founder of the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS), a collaborative project involving researchers from 13 countries in East and Southeast Asia as well as a number of foreign scholars. He also served as president of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, where he played a critical role in cultivating intellectual networks not only between Taiwan and the world, but also among East Asian scholars.