The principal investigator of the project, Prof. Chen Tung Arthur Chen, was awarded Biwako Prize for Ecology with a prize of USD 50,000 in 1997. In addition, he served as the vice chairman of the ICSU International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (2009-2015) and was concerned about the issue of sustainable development for many years.

In 2021, Stanford University evaluated 16,540 marine scientists around the world. Prof. Chen ranked eighth worldwide and first in Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America. He also received the honor of the 2022 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellow and Integrated Marine biosphere Research (IMBeR) Fellow.

Prof. Chen and our project co-principal investigator, Prof. Chin-Chang Hung, are listed in the Top Scientist Ranking of the earth science field in "Research.com" 2022.