News & Stories

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has successfully concluded the "Jobs and Development Conference 2026". As one of the signature events marking HKUST’s 35th anniversary, this year’s edition of the flagship international conference was held in Asia for the first time. It brought together more than 100 leading economists, policymakers and industry practitioners globally to discuss new challenges and opportunities arising from labor markets, the demand for emerging skills and economic transformation.

A research team led by Prof. Haruki WATANABE, Professor in the Department of Physics and the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), in collaboration with Prof. Yukitoshi MOTOME and graduate student Sena WATANABE from the University of Tokyo, has developed a unified theory that predicts when two states of matter are genuinely distinct and when they are secretly the same. The breakthrough provides a general framework for classifying phases across magnetic systems with different spin values and resolves a long-standing debate surrounding the behavior of water ice under extreme pressure.

Co-organized by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Sino Group, the HKUST-SINO One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2026 Final and Award Ceremony was held today at Shaw Auditorium, HKUST. During the ceremony, HKUST and Sino Group also announced the launch of the HKUST InnoBay 1M PLUS program, extending the competition beyond a one-off contest into an ongoing platform for start-up incubation and technology commercialization. The initiative will provide promising teams with access to real-world application scenarios, industry networking, partnership matching and proof-of-concept opportunities, helping innovative solutions progress from technology validation to market adoption, while creating greater opportunities for commercialization and scalable growth.

The Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA (KH EMBA) Program has secured the No. 1 position globally in the Financial Times Executive MBA Ranking 2026, released today, marking an unprecedented 13th time the program has attained the top position. Jointly offered by the HKUST Business School and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the program has consistently been recognized among the world's leading Executive MBA programs for its outstanding impact on participants' careers, leadership development, and global business perspectives.

Turning climate science and early warnings into practical action to protect people, strengthen infrastructure and finance resilience is the focus of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience Conference 2026 (CARE2026) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Running from 8 to 10 October, the conference opened with calls to connect scientific knowledge with better preparedness and decisions that make cities more resilient.The conference brought together over 500 policymakers, scientists, infrastructure experts, finance and insurance leaders, industry stakeholders and community representatives from around the world. Discussions examined how forecasting and early warning systems can inform decisions about housing, infrastructure, biodiversity, nature-based solutions and finance, drawing on Hong Kong’s experience alongside regional and international perspectives.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has once again demonstrated its global research excellence in Stanford University's latest World's Top 2% Scientists ranking. A total of 244 and 205 HKUST scholars were featured in the Single-Year Impact and Career-Long Impact lists, respectively, accounting for approximately 40% of the University's tenure-track faculty. This achievement reflects the growing global influence of HKUST scholars and the University's leadership in advancing cutting-edge research across a wide range of disciplines. 

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) International Case Competition (HKICC) 2026, hosted by the HKUST Business School, concluded successfully. This year’s competition brought together outstanding students from 12 leading universities from around the world.  Leveraging HKUST’s strengths in innovation, business education, and global connectivity, the competition provided a dynamic platform for participants to tackle complex business challenges, exchange ideas across cultures, and develop innovative solutions to real-world issues facing modern enterprises.

A research team led by Prof. QIAN Peiyuan, Chair Professor of the Department of Ocean Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), in collaboration with international partners, has made significant progress in uncovering how deep-sea chemosynthetic symbioses cope with environmental change. The findings reveal that metabolic flexibility in the symbionts, coupled with the host’s finely regulated population of bacterial symbionts, mutually sustains the host’s energy stability. This provides important in situ evidence of how chemosynthetic holobionts at deep-sea cold seeps remain resilient when energy supplies fluctuate and highlights the key role of a tiered adaptation strategy in sustaining the stability of cold seep ecosystems.