UIC will confer Honorary Fellowships on five prominent individuals in the fields of sinology, art, law, science and technology. The conferment is set to be held during the 11th Graduation Ceremony and Honorary Fellowship Conferment at the University Hall on 22 June 2019.
The honorary fellowships will be awarded to Professor Hans van Ess, a widely acknowledged China expert, chair in sinology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU); Mr LIN Ming, chief engineer and general manager for the island and tunnel project of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; Professor LU Gaoqing, President of the University of Surrey, UK; Dr VAN Lau, a famous sculptor in Hong Kong and the creator of the Zhonghe Sculpture that towers over UIC's Zhonghe Square; and Dr Kennedy YH WONG, a prominent lawyer, business entrepreneur and community leader.
The Honorary Fellowship is an honour bestowed on distinguished contributors to the mission of UIC for their sustained commitment to the development of education and society.
As the first college that was co-founded by educational institutions from both Hong Kong and mainland China, UIC conferred its first Honorary Fellowships in 2012, keeping up with Hong Kong Baptist University’s tradition. Currently over 30 important public figures have received this honour, who hail from Zhuhai and other mainland cities, as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UK and the USA.
Profiles of the Honorary-Fellows-to-be:
Prof Hans van Ess is a widely acknowledged China expert who holds the position as Vice-President of International Affairs as well as the chair in sinology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU). Prof van Ess trained in Shanghai and Hamburg where he obtained his PhD followed by a postgraduate fellowship at Fudan University between 1986 and 1988. He has held the presidency of the influential Max Weber Foundation since March 2015. Prof van Ess is the author of several books on Taoism, Confucianism and the study of politics and historiography in ancient China. He has been promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of Germany and China as a teacher and scholar. Prof van Ess is a highly active scholar who is also an internationally recognized expert on Mongolia and Turkey, speaking and teaching their languages. His research interests encompass Central Asian studies.
Lin Ming was the chief engineer and general manager for the island and tunnel project of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Mr Lin was born in 1957 in Xinghua, Jiangxu Province. In 1978, by dint of sheer effort, he was admitted into the Nanjing Shipping School (later absorbed into Southeast University). For the past 40 years, he has dug deep and has undertaken highway construction, bridge-building and other maritime projects, of which the more notable are the Runyang Yangtze River Bridge, the Third Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the now famous breathtaking Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Lin Ming’s spirit has translated into multiple technical progress awards at both the state and provincial levels, chalking up 152 patents, 105 of which are classified as inventions. He is a much-garlanded role model in public service, successively named “National Model Worker”, “Transportation Industry’s Top Ten Impressive Person”, even the “Most Beautiful Worker”. However, constructing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is doubtless the crowning glory of his life. Out of the dozens of self-developed core technologies, Lin’s team produced over 500 patents.
Born in Shandong Province, Professor Lu Gaoqing becomes the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey. He made history by being the first Chinese to hold the presidency of a top university in Britain. Prof Lu taught at Singapore’s famed Nanyang Technological University, before becoming chair professor and Provost and Senior Vice-President of the University of Queensland. Prof Lu served on many Government committees in Australia, including the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He founded the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials. He is a Fellow of Institution of Chemical Engineers, Royal Society of Chemistry, Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and World Academy of Science. He won the inaugural Australia-China Achievement Award for Education in 2014 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. In the University of Surrey, Professor Lu spent much of his time promoting international collaboration. He built an extensive institutional network between UK and Asia-Pacific. British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him to the Council for Science and Technology. China appointed him as a member of the 4th State Council of China Overseas Chinese Consultative Committee.
Dr Van Lau is a big-name sculptor in Hong Kong. His works are a fusion of East and West, a melding of the new and the traditional, anchored by the fact that his entire life is entwined with the culture of China. Born in Xinhui, Guangdong in 1933, he moved to Vietnam with his parents. In his youth he enrolled himself in the school of architecture at Taiwan’s Cheng Kung University, and subsequently in the Faculty of Art at Taiwan Provincial Normal University. Transplanted to Hong Kong in the 1960’s, he began to focus exclusively on sculpture. He is among the first sculptors to advocate a fusion of East and West. His works have been shown in exhibitions in various parts of the world, including the US, China and elsewhere in Asia. Dr Van once served on the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as a member, sat on the Standing Committee of China’s Sculpture Institute, and chaired the Hong Kong Sculpture Society. He won the Bronze Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong SAR government.
Dr Kennedy YH Wong, BBS, JP, is a prominent lawyer, business entrepreneur and community leader. Dr Wong obtained his bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Kent, before being admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong. In 1990, he became the Managing Partner of Philip KH Wong, Kennedy YH Wong & Co. In 1992, he set up a representative office in Shanghai, which was the first foreign law firm’s representative office approved by the China’s Ministry of Justice. Dr Wong has served as the Chairman of the Hong Kong United Youth Association and Vice-Chairman of the All-China Youth Federation. He also co-founded the Hong Kong-Taiwan Exchange Foundation. In addition, Dr Wong has contributed generously to support many charity projects in remote and impoverished regions in the Mainland. Dr Wong was awarded one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Hong Kong in 1998 and one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World by the Junior Chamber International in 2003. In the same year, Dr Wong was appointed a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In 2006, the Hong Kong SAR government awarded him a Bronze Bauhinia Star Medal.
Editors: Deen He, Samuel Burgess
(from MPRO)
