Galit Shmueli:
A Builder of Connections—and Communities
Galit Shmueli has never been someone who carefully planned where life would take her in the far future.
Her path has crossed disciplines, institutions, and countries—from Israel and the United States to India, Bhutan, and Taiwan. Yet when asked how those decisions were made, she offers no grand strategy. “I don’t really analyze or strategize my life,” she says. “I follow my instinct.”
What may seem spontaneous, however, reveals a remarkably consistent pattern. Again and again Prof. Shmueli has been drawn to places where people, ideas, and cultures intersect. Throughout her career, she has sought not simply to cross boundaries, but to create environments where others feel able to learn, participate, and connect.
That same instinct now informs her work as Vice President for Global Affairs at National Tsing Hua University, where creating connections has become both her mission and her method.
Looking Across Boundaries
Interdisciplinary thinking wasn’t something Prof. Shmueli discovered later—it had been part of her life from the beginning.
In high school, she combined mathematics with history and languages. At university, she studied psychology alongside statistics before earning her Ph.D. in Statistics from the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Yet statistics alone was never enough to satisfy her curiosity. She wanted to understand not only what the data revealed, but also how people think and why different disciplines often approach the same questions in different ways.
That curiosity eventually led to her influential 2010 paper, “To Explain or To Predict?”
The paper examined a distinction often overlooked in data analysis: models designed to explain why something happens are not necessarily the same as those designed to predict what will happen next.
The paper examined a distinction often overlooked in data analysis: models designed to explain why something happens are not necessarily the same as those designed to predict what will happen next.
For her, research is rarely an isolated pursuit. Instead, it grows through conversations, unexpected encounters, and a willingness to explore unfamiliar perspectives.
An Unexpected Path to NTHU
Her arrival at NTHU was similarly unplanned. While living in Bhutan, Shmueli received an email introducing opportunities at NTHU. Around the same time, she was scheduled to attend a conference in Taiwan.
She met Professor Fu-Ren Lin and visited the Institute of Service Science. What drew her was not only the interdisciplinary program, but also the people and the sense of purpose behind it. What stood out most was a community that believed academic work should remain connected to society. “It was ISS,” she says. “That was what brought me here.”
The students left an equally lasting impression. Taiwanese students, she says, show strong respect for education and an exceptional ability to work in teams. They recognize one another’s strengths, resolve problems together, and often support the group without needing constant intervention.
At the same time, many hesitate to speak unless they are certain their answer is correct.
Rather than viewing that silence as a weakness, she adjusted her teaching accordingly. She focused on creating classrooms where students could speak before their ideas were perfect, and where mistakes were treated as part of learning.
“The teacher is creating the environment for students to be able to learn,” she says.
That belief—that people grow when the environment allows them to—has become central to her leadership.
Globalization Begins on Campus
When President Kao invited Prof. Shmueli to become Vice President for Global Affairs, he mentioned that her experience as an international faculty member would allow her to notice needs others might miss.
One of the first things she noticed was that international faculty members at NTHU often did not know one another. As an important first mission, she believed the university should support the international community of international scholars already on campus. This became the “Green Forest” initiative, designed to strengthen connections among NTHU’s international faculty and scholars (and their families) through gatherings, communication channels, and shared activities.
“If you want to bring in more international faculty, you have to make this place more visible and friendly to them,” she says.
Her other creatively named initiatives follow the same philosophy.
“Mango Summer” brings overseas students to NTHU to study semiconductors, Mandarin, and mindfulness. The combination may appear unconventional, but Prof. Shmueli sees a clear logic. Students preparing for demanding technology industries need technical knowledge, cultural understanding, and ways to manage pressure.
“Blue Ocean” looks for new pathways and markets to connect with international students and professionals, including communities already living in Taiwan.
“Clear View” improves how the Office of Global Affairs collects and presents data, helping leadership and staff see patterns and ask better questions.
“Inner Calm” includes Mindfulness programs, which provide space and methods for students, faculty, and staff to slow down, reflect, and connect with oneself and with each other.
The five initiatives are different in focus but are all designed to make NTHU more open, more welcoming, and more connected—from within.
Trust Is Where Growth Begins
One of Prof. Shmueli’s most memorable lessons at NTHU didn’t take place in a classroom. It came during a river-tracing event with students from the Institute of Service Science.
At one point, participants were invited to jump from a high rock into the water below.
She was frightened. But her colleagues, students, and safety staff were waiting around her.
“I had to trust,” she recalls. “I just jumped.”
Years later, the memory still stands out—not because of the jump itself, but because it came to symbolize the way she has approached much of her life.
Again and again, she has entered unfamiliar spaces without knowing exactly what would happen next. But she has rarely done so alone. Each new chapter was made possible by colleagues, students, family members, and communities who helped her take the next step.
“No one is alone,” she says. “There is always someone supporting you.”
Prof. Shmueli readily admits that she is a workaholic. Yoga, meditation, hiking, cycling, and silent retreats give her occasional distance from email and administrative life. She also encourages people to walk without headphones, even briefly, and allow themselves time to notice what is around them. The advice reflects the same principle that runs through her research, teaching, and leadership.
People need space—to think, to speak, to make mistakes, to encounter unfamiliar perspectives, and sometimes simply to be still.
Looking back, Prof. Shmueli still refuses to describe her career as carefully planned.
Instead, she remembers a series of conversations, unexpected invitations, and moments when instinct quietly overruled certainty. None of them were part of a carefully mapped-out plan. Yet together, they carried her across disciplines, across continents, and ultimately to NTHU.
Perhaps that is also how she hopes NTHU will continue to grow—not simply by reaching farther across the world, but by becoming a place where people from different backgrounds feel comfortable enough to learn from one another, and where the next unexpected connection has room to begin.