AIS Mourns the Loss of Past President T.P. Liang

The Association for Information Systems is saddened to learn of the passing of past president Ting-Peng (T.P.) Liang. Liang was a pioneer of the information systems discipline in Asia.

Liang received his PhD from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and spent many years teaching at the University of Illinois, Purdue University, Chinese University of Hong Kong and City University of Hong Kong. Most recently, he served as Dean of the College of Management and Provost of National Sun Yat Sen University.

After graduating from Wharton, Liang was among the first group of Chinese scholars who returned to Asia in 1992 to create the Information Systems discipline in the region. He spearheaded the establishment of PACIS in 1993, which has now become the most important and influential IS conference in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Additionally, he created PAJAIS in 2009, which is now one of the best IS journals publishing IS research articles from Asia and about Asia. 

Liang was one of the first AIS Fellows and the first AIS LEO awardee in Asia and made a tremendous contribution in bringing IS into Asia and connect IS scholars in Asia to the world.

"I vividly remember my first IS conference was the inaugural PACIS in Kaohsiung in 1993. T.P. impressed me as a young and energetic scholar who gave up his academic position at a top university in America (Purdue University) and returned to his birthplace to contribute what he had learned from one of the best universities in the world (Wharton) to his motherland," said AIS President-Elect, Patrick Chau. "T.P. is certainly a role model for many many of us! May he rest in peace."

His research interests included electronic commerce, intelligent systems, knowledge management, strategic innovation of information technology and neural information systems. His papers appeared in such publications as MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Operations Research, Journal of MIS, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, and many other academic journals.

Liang also served on the editorial boards of several journals, including Decision Support Systems, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Industrial Management and Data Systems, and Electronic Commerce Research and Applications.

We invite our members to share their memories and condolences in the comments below.