News & Stories

Prof Wenkai He, Associate Professor from the Division of Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), became a co-winner of 2014 Barrington Moore Book Award of the American Sociological Association (ASA) on comparative and historical sociology. He is the first scholar from a non-American university to have won this prestigious award. Prof He’s publication “Paths Toward the Modern Fiscal State”, which compares the history of modern public finance between England, Japan and China, is hailed by his peers as “a genuinely important piece of scholarship that has the potential to become a benchmark in the literature.” It is now an assigned reading for postgraduate students in several top American universities including the University of Chicago.

Ashima Saxena MSc Electronics Engineering ,2011 - Life is about helping each other - After working for three years in an R&D department, going back to university was an amazing experience. It was also the first time that I had lived alone and away from my home country of India. On 2 February 2011, I landed in one of the most beautiful places in Asia – Hong Kong.  It was raining and I was amazed by the green mountains and clean, calm atmosphere. I took a taxi to reach Hong Kong Adventist College, my temporary home in Clear Water Bay.   My roommates were from Mainland China. They seemed shy about speaking English, and I wondered how I would manage over the coming year.

A research team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has solved a long-standing question in photosynthesis which provides insight into the design of artificial photosynthetic systems that may serve as alternative energy devices by effectively utilizing the sunlight. The research was led by Assistant Prof Xuhui Huang and Prof Yijing Yan of the Department of Chemistry and their findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

Prof Yilong Han, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was awarded the 2014 Achievement in Asia Award (AAA) for his distinguished contributions in melting transition, glass transition and the observation of geometrical frustration through creative experiments in colloidal dynamics. The award was shared by Prof Han and Prof Wang Yao, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Hong Kong. Presented by the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers (OCPA), the annual award acknowledges only one or two Chinese scientists below 50 years of age and working in Asia for their outstanding achievements in the field of physics and astronomy. Prof Han will receive his award at the meeting of the American Physics Society in March 2015.

KONG Wing Man Samantha Year 3, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Head Student Ambassador of HKUST Recipient of the Hong Kong Top 10 Outstanding Youth   Engineering is not regarded as an immediate first choice by many top students in Hong Kong. However, you would be absolutely wrong to think in this way. I went overseas to attend high school in Malaysia. Three years ago, just as every high school student does, I struggled as to what discipline to take at university.

A Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) research team led by Prof Yui-bun Chan from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with support from leading global aluminium producer UC RUSAL (SEHK:486, EuroNext: RUSAL/RUAL, Moscow Exchange: RUALR/RUALRS), has discovered a new aluminium composite – Fiber Reinforced Aluminium. This new material is stronger than existing aluminium, cheaper and lighter than steel, and can also be used with insulation panels designed to produce a building envelope system that is safer, cheaper, more energy-efficient and easier to mount. The project is now undergoing its final phase and is expected to complete in 2015.

A team led by scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) R&D Laboratory (IAS HKUST-Scripps R&D Laboratory) and aTyr Pharma has found that ancient enzymes, known for their fundamental role in translating genetic information into proteins, evolved myriad other functions in humans. The surprising discovery of 250 new proteins with previously unidentified activities spanning from stem cell biology to immunology highlights an intriguing oddity of protein evolution as well as a potentially valuable new class of therapeutic proteins. These findings appear in the July 18, 2014 issue of Science.

Xinyue Wang Year 3, major in Accounting and Finance I'm Wang Xinyue, from Beijing. I'm currently a 3rd year student and graduating this June majoring in accounting and finance. I came to Hong Kong with no idea as to what my host city would be like. I entered HKUST with no clue what this university would mean to me. And I began my major with no plans about post-graduation life.But now I am about to graduate, determined and hopeful about my career and with a splendid blueprint for life. It is HKUST that has seeded my dreams. For the University is like an ocean, there is always space for you to explore and shine. “To thrive or survive? It’s your choice. Find out what you are truly interested in and you can become what you believe,” one of my professors said during my very first year at HKUST. Brought up on spoon-fed teaching, I was initially thrown by this question. Where did my interests really lie? For the first time, I started to explore.