54
HKUST 2015-2016
Annual Report
55
A
cademics at the Institute, which is also
known as IAS, enhanced and inspired
leading intellectual endeavor through their
presence and activities at the University and
in the community.
LEADING THE WAY
During the year, the Institute was delighted to
welcome Nobel Laureate in Physics Prof George
Smoot, who has joined the Institute as IAS Helmut &
Anna Pao Sohmen Professor-at-Large.
Among prominent events over the year under
review, IAS Bank of East Asia Professor Ching W
Tang co-organized an international conference on
organic photovoltaic materials and devices and
IAS Si Yuan Professor Gunther Uhlmann delivered
a course on Calderon’s inverse problem for
postgraduate students. IAS Helmut & Anna Pao
Sohmen Professor-at-Large and Nobel Laureate in
Economic Sciences Prof Sir Christopher A Pissarides
was also interviewed by the media regarding the
Greek crisis and the Eurozone’s future.
Seventeen HKUST professors are now IAS Senior
Fellows and IAS Fellows helping to drive forward
interaction between researchers on campus and
host activities for IAS. Ten Junior Fellows and
19 Postdoctoral Fellows from various disciplines are
also on board, with more expected to join in the future.
In 2015-16, IAS hosted 24 Visiting Professors, 11
Senior Visiting Fellows and eight Visiting Fellows on
The global knowledge hub continued to bring together some of the world’s
most brilliant minds on campus
HKUST JOCKEY CLUB
INSTITUTE FOR
ADVANCED STUDY
campus, where they collaborated and interacted with
faculty and students in a variety of ways. For example,
IAS Visiting Professor Chih Ming Ho, University of
California, Los Angeles, worked with faculty members
from Life Science, Mathematics and Mechanical
and Aerospace engineering on research projects
focused on traditional Chinese medicine and drug
effectiveness. Most visiting appointees are members
of national academies or of equivalent stature.
SPARKING FRESH DIRECTIONS
In 2015-16, IAS held over 170 academic events,
including 49 distinguished lectures, 44 joint school
lectures and a UC RUSAL President’s Forum, attracting
over 10,000 participants in total.
IAS also organized topical research programs on
specialized topics to foster further studies and the
formation of more research groups. Subjects included
materials science, transcription, creative Chinese
writing, stem cell research, graphical models and
network analysis, high energy physics, condensed
matter and cold atomic systems. Different formats
were employed, including workshops and short
courses, to provide participants with deeper
understanding of the most recent breakthroughs.
Eight Gordon Research Conferences, academic
gatherings of global renown, were held at the
Institute in Summer 2015. The conferences covered
fields in life science, engineering and physical
sciences. HKUST faculty chaired three.
