HKU Bulletin May 2012 (Vol. 13 No. 2)

Professor Francis Chin Yuk-lun Taikoo Professor of Engineering Department of Computer Science Professor Chin has a thirst for new challenges and new ideas. He ran his first marathon at the age of 53 and his academic career has been marked by a curiosity to explore new fields. Since completing graduate studies at Princeton University and joining HKU in 1985, he has ventured into such areas as algorithm studies, database security, and distributed and parallel computing. Recently he has applied his talents to the field of bioinformatics to help solve biological problems, especially those related to genomes. One project with the Department of Medicine involves breaking down the genome of leukaemia patients into billions of pieces and using next-generation sequencing machines to assemble them and compare them with those of healthy people. “I used to work alone but now working in bioinformatics, I have to work with people to find solutions for biological and medical research. I find it challenging and exciting,” he says. “One of the main purposes of living is to benefit the next generation. I hope that what I’m doing right now is making a small contribution towards that direction.” Professor Zang Wenan Department of Mathematics The great mathematician, Henri Poincaré, once said, “Mathematical discoveries, small or great, are never born of spontaneous generation. They always presuppose a soil seeded with preliminary knowledge and well prepared by labour, both conscious and subconscious.” He might also have added that mathematics is an art. Professor Zang has taken inspiration both from Poincaré and this concept of art. “I like Chinese calligraphy because I can experience beauty through it. In fact, mathematics is also an art,” he says. “I summarise my research philosophy in two words: beauty and quality.” Professor Zang joined HKU after obtaining his PhD from Rutgers University in 1995 and he has successfully resolved several prominent long-standing open problems, such as the Three-Colour Conjecture. He has been honoured for his efforts internationally and published in the flagship journals of operations research, computer science, and discrete mathematics. His achievements have emerged from an unceasing dedication to his topic. “Mathematics is part of my life; it’s not something that I can put aside on weekends or public holidays.” Professor Mok Ngaiming Edmund and Peggy Tse Professor in Mathematics Department of Mathematics In his speech introducing Professor Mok at the Award Presentation Ceremony for Excellence in Teaching and Research 2011, Pro-Vice- Chancellor Paul Tam described the DRAA as the most prestigious research award, adding “privately we call it HKU’s Nobel!” It is fitting then that such an honour should go to Professor Mok, a distinguished mathematician with an outstanding history of excellence in research. “Professor Mok is a highly talented and devoted researcher of world-class standing,” said Professor Tam, “and, I might add, a very loyal servant of the University. I am particularly delighted that he is now receiving the University’s Distinguished Research Achievement Award.” In addition to being Chair of Mathematics at HKU, Professor Mok is Director of the Institute of Mathematical Research. He specialises in complex Professor Tatia Lee Mei-chun May Professor in Neuropsychology Department of Psychology What defines who we are, as a human species and as individuals? It is a question that motivates Professor Lee, who has worked in collaboration with local and overseas clinicians and scientists to unravel some of the secrets of the brain. “I’m interested in studying the brain because I find this very magnificent organ defines who we are, how happy we are, how sad we are, how we make our everyday decisions. It is really the master of our emotion, our thinking and our feeling,” she says. Professor Lee came to HKU in 1996 after obtaining her PhD from the University of Alberta and she is currently Chair Professor of Psychology and Honorary Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine. Her research interests extend beyond the healthy brain into investigating what happens when things go wrong, for instance when a person suffers dementia, a stroke, Parkinson’s or other diseases that affect the brain. “We hope to understand how the brain maintains its health during the process of ageing and how the brain recovers from various illnesses,” she says. differential geometry, several complex variables and algebraic geometry. He is well-known for having solved a number of outstanding mathematical problems related to curvature and symmetry in geometry. These include his celebrated work in 1988 resolving the Generalised Frankel Conjecture using evolution equations in partial differential equations and rational curves from algebraic geometry. In the last decade Professor Mok, together with Hwang Jun-muk, laid the foundation of a differential-geometric theory of minimal rational curves, solving a series of difficult classical problems in algebraic geometry. Since the early 1980s, Professor Mok has been collaborating with mathematicians from Mainland China. In 1989, his article with the late Professor Zhong Jiaqing in Annals of Mathematics was the first article in the Annals co-authored by a mathematician from Mainland China since China opened up in the late 1970s. His talents are not confined to mathematics – he is also multi- lingual and has lectured on mathematics in English, Putonghua, Cantonese, French, German and Italian. He also reads half a dozen other languages. As Professor Tam joked during the presentation ceremony, “Maybe he should also have an honorary professorship at the School of Languages.” An avid reader since childhood, Professor Mok’s favourite subjects include cultural history, philosophy, linguistics and poetry. But mathematics remains his main passion and he has delivered invited lectures on a wide range of subjects within the discipline, including recent plenary talks in key meetings around the world. In 2011 he was Distinguished Lecturer at the National Centre for Mathematical and Interdisciplinary Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and at the Mathematics Research Center of Stanford University. Being awarded the DRAA, marks the latest in a long list of honours that have been bestowed on Professor Mok. He was a Sloan Fellow in 1984, and received the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the US in 1985, the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship in 1998 and the State Natural Science Award (Class II) in 2007. In 2009, he was awarded the Bergman Prize of the American Mathematical Society for “his fundamental contributions in several complex variables, in particular, in the geometry of Kähler and algebraic manifolds.” Distinguished ResearchAchievement Award The DRAA is HKU’s most prestigious research award, bestowed on only a few outstanding individuals for their sustained and exceptional efforts in research. Outstanding Researcher Award This award goes to scholars who produce excellent research of international merit. They receive $250,000 to further their research. May 2012 35 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin Teaching and Research Awards