Her research interests include river mechanics and restoration, sediment transport and management, ecohydraulics, water environment planning and assessment, and geomorphology. She is currently working on resolving the conflicts related to land use between green energy and other core necessities for sustainability through science combined with local wisdom to emphasize the need to blend environmental management and mitigation to address problems known today and predicted for the future. Hsiao-Wen got her PhD in National Taiwan University in 2006 and was a post-doctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in 2007 and 2008 before she joined National Cheng Kung University. She is now a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley through the Fulbright Senior Research Program.