Honorary University Fellows
Professor Saw Swee Hock is a leading expert on statistical demography, statistical finance and financial economics. He holds a BA (1957) and MA (1960) from the University of Malaya in Singapore and a PhD in Statistics from the London School of Economics (LSE).
He is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and the President’s Honorary Professor of Statistics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is an Honorary Professor at HKU and also at Xiamen University. He has been a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur and Professor of Statistics at NUS.
As Founding Chair and the Head of Department of Statistics at HKU (1969-1971), he focused on the recruitment of teaching staff and the development of the statistics programme to produce enough statisticians for both the public and private sectors. Furthermore, he provided funds to establish the Saw Gold Medal in Statistics, Saw Swee Hock Statistics Scholarship, and Saw Swee Hock Visiting Professorship in Statistics at HKU. He presently serves as an Honorary Director of the HKU Foundation.
Professor Saw has been very active in philanthropic work, particularly in the area of tertiary education across the region. He was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the LSE, and received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award and the Outstanding Service Award from NUS. He was conferred the Public Service Medal by the President of the Republic of Singapore in the 2013 National Day Awards.
Citation delivered by Professor Sun KWOK, Dean of Science
Professor Saw Swee Hock is a leading expert on statistical demography, statistical finance and financial economics.
He holds a BA (1957) and MA (1960) from the University of Malaya in Singapore and a PhD in Statistics (1963) from the London School of Economics.
He is currently a Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, the President’s Honorary Professor of Statistics at the National University of Singapore, and an Honorary Professor at Xiamen University.
Before developing his academic career, Professor Saw worked as a Statistician for 2 years at the Department of Statistics of the Singapore Government back in 1957. He has been a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, and Professor of Statistics at the National University of Singapore.
Since then, he has established a long and illustrious career in the field of statistics for nearly a half-century, with a strong dedication to the development of statistics around the world.
During his time at HKU, Professor Saw was the Founding Chair and Head of the Department of Statistics from 1969 to 1971, during which time he focused on the recruitment of teaching staff and the development of the statistics programme to produce enough statisticians for both the public and private sectors.
He remains an Honorary Professor with the current Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science.
After returning to his home country in 1971, Professor Saw continues to provide funds generously to establish the Saw Gold Medal in Statistics, Saw Swee Hock Statistics Scholarship, and Saw Swee Hock Visiting Professorship in Statistics at HKU. He also serves as an Honorary Director of the HKU Foundation.
Beyond the University, he has rendered valuable service to the Department of Census and Statistics, the Police Department, and the Hong Kong Family Planning Association in the collection and analysis of statistics.
He served as a member of the Sub-Committee on Research of the Family Planning Association and also the Scientific Sub-Committee of the World Health Foundation (Hong Kong).
Professor Saw has also been very active in philanthropic work, particularly in the area of tertiary education across the region.
He has provided philanthropic support for the establishment of bursaries, scholarships, endowed professorships, schools/faculties, and buildings to different organisations worldwide.
He is the benefactor of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore, the Saw Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at the Xiamen University and the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre at the London School of Economics.
In 2006, Professor Saw was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the London School of Economics, and in 2005 received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award and the Outstanding Service Award from the National University of Singapore.
Recently Professor Saw was also conferred the Public Service Medal by the President of the Republic of Singapore in the 2013 National Day Awards, and will be receiving the President’s (of Singapore) Award for Philanthropy in October 2013.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr Pro-Chancellor, to present Professor Saw Swee Hock for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to Hong Kong and academia.