HKU Bulletin May 2009 (Vol. 10 No. 2)

Professor Ricky Man Ying Keung Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy Professor Man’s former PhD student and now Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Dr Susan Leung Wai Sum, was delighted to present a citation on her former supervisor. Here’s part of what she had to say: “As a supervisor, Professor Man has fostered an environment for his students to be independent, while knowing that he is always there to provide guidance and support. He also gives enormous freedom to do what we want in our research, while keeping us on track with our research hypotheses. And his support does not end with the completion of the postgraduate degree. He has a tradition of taking the graduate out for lunch after the submission of his/her thesis and advising his students on their own strengths and weaknesses in preparation for facing the outside world. I consider myself very lucky to have had Professor Man as my supervisor.” Professor Irene Ng Oi Lin Loke Yew Professor in Pathology, Department of Pathology Professor Ng’s PhD candidate, Carmen Wong Chak Lui, was full of praise for her supervisor. She said. “She is not only a brilliant pathologist and scientist but also an excellent supervisor. She is a supportive and considerate mentor and has taught me that the training process is the most important thing for students in their studies. “There is never a hierarchical atmosphere between Professor Ng and me. I remember her saying that it is very important to have mutual understanding between supervisor and student so that we can plan and work together for the best solution. What has touched me most is that she always regards her students as a priority and really hopes to see them shine in their careers. Despite her great achievements in research and teaching, she has always been a very humble and genuine person.” Professor Ng has formerly won the Outstanding Researcher Award, and the Croucher Senior Medical Research Fellowship. Dr Zhou Mei Fu Department of Earth Sciences Dr Zhou is a geochemist who received the University’s Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2004. His former PhD student, Dr Pang Kwan Nang, shares his views on what makes Dr Zhou an excellent supervisor. “He knows the strengths and weaknesses of his students very well and has reasonable expectations of them. He encourages students to try publishing one or more representative articles in the best possible journals. Over the past seven years, his students have published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles, as a first author, in international journals of geology and geochemistry. Among them, two students were granted Outstanding Research Postgraduate Student Awards by HKU. “I had several opportunities to work in laboratories in the United States and China as part of my PhD studies, which were very useful in establishing links to researchers I am currently collaborating with. He also invested a great deal of effort in bringing his students into contact with potential employers.” Dr Agnes Fung Yee Tiwari Department of Nursing Studies Dr Tiwari has made significant contributions to the development and implementation of the nursing curriculum, in particular the MNurs (PT) programme, and has published extensively on problem-based learning. She approaches teaching with the belief that students are enthusiastic, interested and driven, and her role is to help them develop these qualities further. “As a teacher responsible for educating professionals, I aim to ensure that not only do students achieve professional competence on graduation, but they are also able to reason, integrate and apply their knowledge and skills in real-life professional situations in a humane, safe, competent and empathetic manner,” she says. “The learning that takes place in the workplace is also integrated into the curriculum to ensure a holistic professional learning experience.” PhD candidate Janet Wong Yuen Ha has found Dr Tiwari to be an inspiring and supportive teacher. “She is always creative in her teaching and she makes her lessons pleasurable and fun. She believes teaching is not only knowledge transfer but also how to keep the learning momentum going. Therefore, she tries her best to give students confidence and motivates them to be independent and have a lifelong-learning attitude.” Dr Ben Young Department of Civil Engineering The Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Professor Albert Kwan Kwok Hung, describes Dr Young as ‘a devoted and enthusiastic teacher’ who is popular with students and always willing to spend extra time helping them outside classes. These qualities are among the seven ‘musts’ that Dr Young believes comprise teaching excellence. “You must have a heart for your students; you must spend time to prepare for lectures; you must present well in lectures; you must always make students think in lectures; you must have two-way communication in lectures; you must get feedback from students; you must always think of ways to improve,” he says. Dr Young normally devotes 10-14 hours per hour of lecture when preparing new lecture notes, and his use of models to illustrate complicated ideas has earned high praise from students. Student Ng Ka Wai recalls how he helped his class visualize torsion in mechanics. “To show us how a bar fails in torsion and to reinforce the knowledge in our mind, he gave each of us a pretzel stick and instructed everyone to follow his procedures, and the pretzel broke in the way it was calculated to do,” he says. “Dr Young is very good at delivering his knowledge to us.” 21 Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award This prize is granted in recognition of supervisors of research postgraduate students whose guidance has been particularly helpful to their students in the pursuit of excellence. Award winners receive a monetary award of $25,000 to further their research. 20 Dr Agnes Fung Yee Tiwari Dr Ben Young TEACHING AND RESEARCH