2023 marks a historic milestone for CUHK - the 60th anniversary of its foundation. Today, with eight faculties, nine colleges and over a quarter of a million alumni it is a fully fledged university whose impact has grown exponentially and, as the theme of its diamond jubilee celebrations says, a place “where great minds shine”. CUHK kicked off the celebrations with a carnival of lights, featuring a stunning drone show and many thrilling performances. Catch a glimpse of the glittering commencement ceremony and upcoming spectacles.
CUHK’s network of distinguished scholars continue to garner worldwide recognition for their pursuit of excellence in research, innovation and education. For example, a CUHK architecture scholar and his team built a library for children in a rural area of China, received an award for it at the 2022 World Architecture Festival, known popularly as the Oscars of architecture. Also, seven scholars from CUHK received international and national honours in a range of disciplines over the past few months in recognition of their research excellence.
CUHK’s outstanding scholars and research have recently won several coveted international awards. In particular, Professor Dennis Lo received the prestigious Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his revolutionary non-invasive prenatal test. Additionally, CUHK Art Museum won the UMAC Award from the International Council of Museums Committee for University Museums and Collections. The University has also set new records in world university rankings, demonstrating CUHK’s influence and leading position in the global higher education community.
Professor Mei-Po KWAN from CUHK’s Department of Geography and Resource Management has been awarded the James R. Anderson Medal of Honor in Applied Geography, the highest honour in the field, for her multidisciplinary contributions to applied geography; while Professor YU Jun from the Faculty of Medicine has been awarded the Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award by the Chinese Academy of Engineering in recognition of her distinguished achievements in gastrointestinal cancer studies.
Remarkable research and innovation from CUHK have reaped multiple awards at this year’s International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. A CUHK professor also received the honour of AIMBE College Fellowship in recognition of his novel technology for rehabilitation and his contribution to the education of biomedical engineering.
Certain traumas, diseases or ageing problems cause damage to human tissues and bodies, but regenerative medicine brings hope to patients by repairing or regenerating them. Professor Rocky S. TUAN, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK has spent years of intensive effort in the field of skeletal tissue engineering and regeneration. His achievement has recently been recognised by the TERMIS with an International Fellowship (FTERM); he is the first Hong Kong scholar to be given the honour.
Applications of quantum sensing technology can be found in a wide range of settings, including medical imaging, prediction of weather patterns and even analysis of seismic activity. Professor Renbao Liu from Physics of CUHK has received the 2022 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics for his contribution to spin decoherence and quantum sensing research. He and Professor Chester Shu from Electronic Engineering have also been elected Fellows of a prestigious society, highly commending their research achievements.
CUHK researchers and their projects have recently been funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council under its various schemes, supporting innovative and more collaborative research. CUHK topped Hong Kong’s universities in the Collaborative Research Fund 2021/22, as well as securing significant funding from other schemes.
Physical exchange programmes from global educational institutions have been heavily affected by the pandemic. CUHK has initiated a virtual student exchange programmme for students to experience international education without leaving home. The endeavour made it into the final round and was a “Highly Commended” entry for International Strategy of the Year at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards Asia 2021.
In the past two months, CUHK scholars gained international recognition from various disciplines for their outstanding research achievement. Three medicine scholars’ effective translation of non-invasive prenatal test and cancer diagnostic approaches from scientific research level into clinical application, has earned them inclusion in “Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2020” by the world-renowned scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.
