Taipei, June 21 (CNA) One of the co-founders of Quanta Computer Inc., C.C. Leung, donated Thursday an additional NT$570 million(US$19.06 million) to his alma mater, National Taiwan University(NTU), to expand a physics research institute he helped establishfive years ago.

The money will be used to set up a sustainability fund and build a new office building for the Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, according to Pisin Chen, director of the center and a former classmate of Leung at NTU's Department of Physics.

The center was founded in 2007, thanks to a NT$205 milliondonation from Leung.

Leung said at the donation ceremony that physics remains his favorite field of interest, even though 40 years have passed since his graduation from NTU. He recalled that he once spent two months building a telescope with Chen and other classmates during hissophomore year.

The tycoon also said he thought of joining Chen when he learned that his old classmate was participating in an Antarctic research project last year as part of the center's work, but did not takeaction because he feared he might not be able to cope with theclimate there.

For his part, Chen expressed gratitude to Leung for his generous support of astrophysical research.

In addition to the Antarctic research project, the center is currently taking part in an international project to launch a satellite for the observation of cosmic gamma-ray bursts, Chen noted.

(By Hsu Chih-wei and Y.F. Low)
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