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

28 29 Nine Honoured as University Fellows N ine distinguished individuals were awarded Honorary University Fellowships in recognition of their contributions to the University and the community, in December. The recipients included Mr Robert Allcock, Mr Chung Po Yang, Ir Dr the Honourable Raymond Ho Chung Tai, Ms Leonie Ki Man Fung, Mr Colin Lam Ko Yin, Dr Sarah Mary Liao Sau Tung, Dr Lawrence Ng Ming Loy, Ms Esther Suen Chi Lan, and Dr Allan Wong Chi Yun. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, said the fellowships were a means for the University to salute those who have made important contributions in their own unique ways and to reaffirm the links between town and gown. In honouring these individuals, Professor Tsui praised the newly-awarded fellows as ‘true examples of courage and leadership, because they themselves lead by example.’ At the 180th Congregation, in March, five outstanding individuals were conferred honorary degrees in recogni t ion of thei r distinguished service and commitment to the University, to the community, and to academia. The recipients were Dr Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (Doctor of Letters honoris causa ), Dr Rita Fan Hsu Lai Tai, Dr Robert Ho Hung Ngai, Dr Lam Shan Muk, and Dr Mok Hing Yiu (all Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa ). Dr Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play the piano at the age of two. He entered the Moscow Gnessin School of Music at six, and came to international attention in 1984, when at the age of 12, he performed Chopin's Piano Concertos at the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic. Since his first appearance outside Russia in 1985, he has performed in the world’s greatest halls. In 1994 he was named Musical America’s youngest ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’, and was the youngest awardee of the Triumph Award in 1997, for his outstanding contribution to Russia's culture. Dr Rita Fan Hsu Lai Tai was born in 1945, in Shanghai, and attended the St Stephen’s Girls’ College in Hong Kong. She is a HKU graduate and was appointed a member of the Legislative Council in 1983 and, in 1989, became an Executive Councillor and the Chairperson of Education Commission. She served as a member of the Prel iminary Working Committee for the HKSAR and the Preparatory Committee for the HKSAR, and was elected President of first the Provisional Legislative Council, from 1997-98, and later the Legislative Council for three terms – the first woman to be elected to the post, and also its longest-serving. She is currently a Member of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People’s Congress of the PRC. Dr Robert Ho Hung Ngai , Chairman of the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, was born in 1932 in Hong Kong. He obtained his BA from Colgate University and his Master of Science degree in Journalism from Columbia University, in the United States. He worked as a reporter with the Pittsburgh Press , before returning to Hong Kong, where he joined the Kung Sheung Daily News , established by his late grandfather, Sir Robert Ho Tung, where he served until his retirement. Dr Ho has contributed enormously to the local development of journal ism and was Chairman of the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong for several years. HONOURS Dr Lam Shan Muk (more commonly known by his pen names, Lam Hang Chi and Shih Wei De) was born in 1940, and raised on the Mainland. After coming to Hong Kong, he joined the Ming Pao Daily in the early 1960s. After studying Economics at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, he returned to Hong Kong in 1969 and joined the Ming Pao Evening News , leading its financial section. Dr Lam founded the Hong Kong Economic Journal , in 1973, and the Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly , in 1977. For 25 years, he wrote a daily column, ‘Politics and Economics Review’, in which he analysed Hong Kong and international affairs. His writing has been anthologized in over 100 books in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland. Dr Mok Hing Yiu was born in 1923 and is the great-grandson of the first comprador of the British firm Butterfield & Swire (Taikoo). He joined HKU’s Medical Faculty in 1939, as a King Edward VII Scholar, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of war. He received a wartime MBBS degree from HKU in 1947 and was awarded the Hong Kong Defence Medal and the Auxiliary Medical Service Medal for his wartime service. He served in the Government’s Medical and Health Department, as Acting Medical Specialist, and started his own practice in 1953. Dr Mok was Honorary Lecturer in Medicine, at HKU, from 1951-52, he has served as Vice-President and President of the HKU Alumni Association, and supported the endowment of the Mok Hing-Yiu Professorship in Respiratory Medicine, in 2007, and the Mok Hing-Yiu Distinguished Visiting Professorships, in 2008. Dr Rita Fan Hsu Lai Tai in her address delivered on behalf of the recipients. “University education is the training of one's mind, the process of developing the potential in each student, the formation of positive attitudes, the gaining of insight into one's own strength and weaknesses, and the ability to understand the needs of others.”