UC RUSAL (SEHK: 486, Euronext: RUSAL/RUAL, Moscow Exchange: RUALR/RUALRS), a leading global aluminium producer, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) invite Prof John Ellis, Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London and Physicist at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to speak at the UC RUSAL President's Forum on 12 April 2013.
Hosted by Prof Tony F Chan, President of HKUST, the UC RUSAL President's Forum will feature the world-renowned British theoretical physicist and Maxwell Medalist Prof John Ellis. He will share insights on the prospects of finding the answers posed in Paul Gauguin's famous paintings: "What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?" In particular, Prof Ellis will focus on the new particle discovered recently at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, which may be the Higgs boson that provides the masses of elementary particles, making possible the existence of atoms.
Prof Ellis pointed out earlier that the Higgs boson has been the hottest pursuit in modern physics. He analogized it to a piece missing right in the middle of the giant jigsaw puzzle, the Standard Model which describes all fundamental particle physics. It was first proposed almost 50 years ago and physicists have been looking for this for 30 years now, and it is one of the most important tasks of the LHC at CERN.
Prof Ellis graduated from King's College, Cambridge, in 1971 with a PhD in theoretical high-energy particle physics. After two post-doctoral positions at SLAC (now SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) and Caltech, he settled in CERN in Geneva and held a permanent contract there from 1978. CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's most powerful particle accelerator and one of the largest scientific experiments ever, which tries to address the most fundamental questions of physics and the cosmos.
Prof Ellis' research interests focus on the phenomenological aspects of elementary particle physics with important contributions to astrophysics, cosmology and quantum gravity. A substantial part of his extensive work relates directly to experiment: interpreting results of searches for new particles and exploring the physics that could be done with future accelerators. He is accredited with being one of the pioneers of particle astrophysics: the interface between particle physics and cosmology. He has authored nearly 1,000 scientific papers, some with over 50,000 citations. He is the second most-cited theoretical physicist in the world and is currently very active in efforts to understand the Higgs-like particle discovered recently at CERN.
In 1982 and 2005, Prof Ellis was awarded the Maxwell Medal and the Paul Dirac Prize respectively by the Institute of Physics. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1985 and of the Institute of Physics in 1991, and is an Honorary Fellow of King's College Cambridge and of the Serbian Physical Society.
The UC RUSAL President's Forum featuring Prof John Ellis will take place at 3.00pm on 12 April 2013 (Friday) at Lam Woo Lecture Theater (LT-B) of HKUST. For more details, please visit: http://ias.ust.hk/ucrusal/.
The UC RUSAL President's Forum
The UC RUSAL President's Forum is organized under the auspices of the HKUST Institute for Advanced Study and is held biannually in Hong Kong. Prestigious scholars and scientists as well as successful business leaders and entrepreneurs are invited to share with the audience their views on varied topics including the latest trends in science and technology and its relationship with and impact on humankind, knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity. Speakers also engage in a dialogue with the HKUST President. Previous Forum speakers include UC RUSAL CEO Mr Oleg Deripaska, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Prof Christopher Pissarides, then-Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Dr Jim O'Neill, Chairman of Esquel Group Ms Marjorie Yang and Chairman of Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange Mr Barry Cheung.
About UC RUSAL
UC RUSAL (www.rusal.com) is a leading, global aluminium producer, in 2012 accounting for approximately 9% of global production of aluminium and 8% of alumina. UC RUSAL employs about 72,000 people in 19 countries, across 5 continents. UC RUSAL markets and sells its products primarily in the European, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, South East Asian and North American markets. UC RUSAL's ordinary shares are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock code: 486), global depositary shares representing UC RUSAL's ordinary shares are listed on the professional compartment of Euronext Paris (RUSAL for Reg S GDSs and RUAL for Rule 144A GDSs), and Russian depositary receipts that are issued on common shares of the Company are listed on Moscow Exchange (RUALR/RUALRS).
About the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a top-ranked international research university excelling in science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. Internationally renowned for its academic rigor and accomplishments, the University promotes interdisciplinary studies and provides holistic education, nurturing well-rounded graduates with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, innovative thinking and relevant skills to thrive in a knowledge economy. As an international university with strong ties to global thought leaders, HKUST has wide-ranging connections with Mainland China while aspiring to be a global premier knowledge hub and a center of research breakthroughs. HKUST was ranked Asia's number one for the second year in a row in 2012. It was placed third for the world's under-50 universities in 2012. The Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA (EMBA) program, for the fourth straight year, topped the Financial Times EMBA global rankings.
For media enquiries, please feel free to contact:
UC RUSAL
Gladys Kong
Tel: (852) 2864-4806
Email: gladys.kong@sprg.com.hk
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Kit Yip
Tel: (852 2358 6313)
Email: kityip@ust.hk
Sharon Lau
Tel: (852) 2114-4987
Email: sharon.lau@sprg.com.hk
