HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang and some of the world’s top scientists joined hands to plant trees at the site of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), to mark the opening of the Institute’s inaugural symposium entitled “Mapping Frontiers of Science”.
Mr Tsang was flanked by Prof C N Yang, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 and currently Chair of the IAS International Advisory Board, and HKUST President Paul Chu, who is also the Founding Director of IAS.
“Today is a major milestone not only in the development of the IAS, but for the advancement of science at the regional and even global level,” said President Chu.
Construction of the IAS Building, located at the top of a knoll adjacent to the southern side of the HKUST campus, is scheduled to start by late 2009.
The inaugural activities included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by HKUST President Paul Chu representing HKUST and Prof Peter Goddard representing the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. HKUST is one of only three universities in China with which the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton has entered into partnership – the other two being Peking University and Tsinghua University.
The Inaugural Symposium on 5 and 6 January 2009 entitled “Mapping Frontiers of Science” comprises over 20 lectures under five categories – New Frontiers in Science, Science of New Materials, New Frontiers in Life Science, Computation Science, and Emerging Technology for Energy – followed by a roundtable discussion on future directions.
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