News & Stories

"2011 was a great year in the HKUST story. Not only did the University celebrate its 20th Anniversary since courses first began in 1991, HKUST also became the No.1 ranked university in Asia . That's right! Just two decades after it was founded, the University was named the leading School in the region in the reputable Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asian University Rankings. The previous year, we were ranked second.

Prof He Xuhua, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was awarded the prestigious 2013 Morningside Gold Medal of Mathematics. The announcement was made at the opening of the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM) in Taipei, Taiwan. Prof He is the only scholar in Hong Kong receiving this prestigious award this year. The ICCM is held triennially, and the Morningside Gold Medal of Mathematics is to honor mathematicians of Chinese descent, under the age of forty-five, for their exceptional achievements in mathematics. Both the ICCM and the Morningside Medals of Mathematics are modeled after the renowned older quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), and the Fields Medal, a mathematics equivalent of a Nobel Prize.

Two pioneering research projects at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) led by Prof Che-ting Chan, Chair Professor of the Department of Physics and Prof Mingjie Zhang, Kerry Holdings Professor of Science of the Division of Life Science were awarded close to $100 million in total by the University Grants Committee (UGC) under its Sixth Round of Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme.

Prof Ping Sheng, Prof Che-ting Chan and Prof Jason Yang of the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) were jointly awarded the inaugural Brillouin Medal by the International Phononics Society (IPS) for their discovery of locally resonant acoustic / elastic metamaterials and related contributions. Prof Sheng and Prof Chan attended the second International Conference on Phononic Crystals / Metamaterials, Phonon Transport & Optomechanics (Phononics 2013) held at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in early June to receive the Medal and deliver the Award Lecture.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was just named the top university in Asia for the third straight year by the highly reputable Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings: Asia. Mr Ben Sowter, Head of Research at QS Intelligence Unit highlighted that Asian higher education is undergoing a rapid transformation, and China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea are at the forefront of the assault on the global academic leadership positions. There are already 17% more Asian universities in the global top 200 since the recession, and the next two decades could see leading US and European universities objectively overtaken.

Prof Reinhard Renneberg, Professor of Department of Chemistry at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was newly elected Academician of Leibniz-Sozietät. This is the first time such an honor was bestowed on a Hong Kong-based scholar.

Three pioneering research projects at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have won Awards for Research Excellence in Natural Sciences 2012 presented by the Ministry of Education, with two in First-Class and one in Second. Prof Joseph Hun-wei Lee, Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies offered his heartfelt congratulations to the award-winning research teams. He reiterated the University's ongoing mission to drive socio-economic development through excellence in education, research and innovation for the purpose of making greater contributions to Hong Kong and Mainland China. The Awards received by HKUST research teams attest to the University's strength in research and give a big boost to the conscientious researchers, not to mention deepening ties between local and Mainland scientists in resolving central issues and enhancing research capabilities.

A team of students studying for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) clinched first place in the CEIBS-Beijing Benz INNOVATEChina 2013 Entrepreneurship Challenge for its business plan to commercialize HKUST technologies, beating contestants from the Columbia University Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), University of California at Berkeley, Tsinghua University and others. Immediately after the victory, the team was capped with another honor at the University of Oregon's New Venture Championship, where it took the Best Trade Show Award.