IAS Named Professors: IAS Helmut & Anna Pao
Sohmen Professor-at-Large Prof Sir Christopher A
Pissarides, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Economic Sciences in 2010; IAS Bank of East Asia
Professor Prof Ching W Tang, recipient of the 2011
Wolf Prize in Chemistry; and IAS Si Yuan Professor
Prof Gunther Uhlmann, winner of the 2011 Bocher
Memorial Prize and the Kleinman Prize. The three
eminent academics delivered advanced seminars
for postgraduate students, industry talks targeting
professionals in their respective fields, and public
lectures for general audiences, inspiring many walks
of life.
To create a conducive interdisciplinary environment
for research, 19 prominent HKUST professors were
engaged as IAS Senior Fellows to collaborate on
research projects and host various activities for
the Institute. In addition, internationally renowned
scholars from around the world paid regular visits to
IAS as Visiting Professors and Visiting Fellows. Many
are members of national academies or equivalent
s t ature. In the year under review, 21 V isiting
Professors, three Senior Visiting Fellows and two
Visiting Fellows visited the Institute. They conducted
joint research with HKUST faculty, shared the latest
progress in their fields through a variety of activities,
and provided guidance and mentorship to HKUST
students and postdoctoral scholars.
ACTIVE ENDEAVORS
In 2013-14, IAS organized some 209 academic
events, including 49 distinguished lectures, 12 topical
research programs and two UC RUSAL President’s
Forums, attracting over 7,000 participants. The
hosting of Gordon Research Conferences was another
major feature. Four of these renowned global science
meetings were held at the Institute in July and August
2013, three of which were chaired by HKUST faculty.
Conference themes spanned fields in life science,
mechanical engineering and physics.
IAS also organized topical research programs to
promote the creation and development of clusters
of research activities and new initiatives at HKUST.
The first of their kind in Hong Kong, these programs
usually comprise short courses, workshops, and ample
discussion sessions. Programs ranged from a week to
several months and covered specialized topics such
as statistical physics and computational neuroscience,
Gromov-Witten theory and quantization, creative
Chinese writing, special cycles and p-adic L-functions,
computational and experimental immunology, and
new perspectives on cosmology.
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HKUST 2013-2014 Annual Report
