Shun Lien Sung is a Taiwanese pharmacist who works in medicinal regulatory affairs. She studied pharmacy in Taiwan and began her career in clinical and hospital pharmacy. After marriage and having children, she stepped away from her career due to family responsibilities and social expectations at the time. She later rebuilt her career through regulatory work with a law firm that handled product registration for cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies.
Her early interest in STEM was shaped by her family. Growing up with five sisters who were “all… good at science and mathematics,” science felt like a natural path. At 16, she was one of only eight girls in a class of sixty studying science, yet she excelled academically. As she developed professionally, she sought independence and knowledge growth, explaining, “I just wanted to be more knowledgeable… I needed to be aggressive to build up my profession.”
One of her proudest achievements was helping computerise a hospital’s unit dose drug dispensing system. She states, “We successfully did the computerised drug delivery system… it became efficient, cost effective and safe.” She is also proud of creating flexible work opportunities for women, especially mothers, in her company since 2008.
Beyond her professional work, Sung is active in women’s advocacy and STEM networks including INWES, promoting visibility and leadership for women in science and technology. She encourages women to “be herself,” “show off… so young people know our stories,” and emphasises that “Networking is important… things go better and very smoothly.”