HKIAS Annual General Meeting 2025: Commemorating a Decade of Excellence and Embracing Future Endeavors

22 Oct 2025
(In-person AGM attendees from left, front row) Prof. Marc Fontecave; Prof. Étienne Ghys; Prof. Sylvie Méléard; Prof. Pierre-Louis Lions; Prof. Shuk Han Cheng; Prof. Serge Haroche; Prof. Dame Madeleine Atkins; Prof. Mu-ming Poo; Prof. Hesheng Chen 
(From left, back row) Prof. Jian Lu; Prof. Habib Ammari; Prof. Benoît Perthame; Prof. Way Kuo; Prof. Phillippe Ciarlet; Prof. Tomas Hökfelt; Prof. Evelyn Hu; Prof. Ching Ping Wong; Prof. David Clarke
(Online AGM attendees from top left) Prof. Jean Salençon; Prof. Peter Glynn

The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) hosted its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 15, 2025, gathering Senior Fellows from across the globe to mark the Institute’s 10th anniversary and engage in discussions centered on strategic advancements in research and international collaboration. Under the leadership of Chairman Professor Serge Haroche, the meeting commenced with a heart-warming welcome to the new appointed HKIAS Senior Fellows: Professor Françoise Combes, Professor Étienne Ghys, Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins, Professor Alessio Figalli and Professor Sylvie Méléard. The Executive Director, Professor Shuk Han Cheng, presented a comprehensive review of the recent initiatives undertaken by City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and HKIAS, highlighting current news, activities, collaborative interactions with faculty members between CityUHK and the home institutions of our Senior Fellows and the significant achievements of Senior Fellows to underscore a decade of excellence.

As a key component of the HKIAS 10th anniversary celebration activities, HKIAS organised a series of distinguished lectures and round table discussion. These activities, which showcased the cutting-edge research contributions of our Senior Fellows across multitude of disciplines, were supported partially by the Kwang Hua Educational Foundation. Their reception among students and faculty at CityUHK and various academic institutions across Hong Kong highlighted a profound interest and active engagement within the academic community.

Professor Serge Haroche, HKIAS Chairman and Nobel laureate in Physics
Professor Pierre-Louis Lions, Fields Medalist in 1994

13 October: Professor Serge Haroche, an esteemed Nobel laureate in Physics, unveiled the intricacies of laser and quantum physics. On the same day, Professor Pierre-Louis Lions, the 1994 recipient of the Fields Medal, engaged the audience with a discourse on the intersection of mathematics and artificial intelligence (AI).

14 October: Professor George Fu Gao, a world-renowned virologist, delivered an insightful lecture on AI-empowered vaccine and antibody development. Additionally, Professor Mu-ming Poo, a distinguished figure in neuroscience and brain-inspired technology illuminated the audience on brain science and its implications for AI development.

15 October: Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins, President Emeritus of Lucy Cavendish College at the University of Cambridge, led a Round Table Discussion on Additional Models of Research Grant Funding, with Mr David Foster, Executive Director of the Croucher Foundation, as the online guest speaker.  

Prof. George Fu Gao, Professor and Former Director-General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Professor Mu-ming Poo, Scientific Director, Institute of Neuroscience of Chinese Academy of Science
Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins, President-Emerita of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge

Beyond these events, the celebration featured several other highly anticipated academic sessions by distinguished Senior Fellows. Professor Benoît Perthame delivered a lecture titled "Monge-Kantorovich distance and PDEs", exploring transport cost minimization and its applications in mathematical biology. Professor Sylvie Méléard delved into the long-time behavior of trait-structured birth and death processes. Professor Habib Ammari enriched the audience with a technical exploration of wave localisation and spectral gaps within disordered systems. The AGM week also featured the prestigious France-Hong Kong Distinguished Lectures, where Professor Françoise Combes traced the history of the universe from the Big Bang to dark energy, and Professor Étienne Ghys discussed the historical and modern missions of an Academy of Sciences through the French example.

Professor Françoise Combes, President of the French Academy of Sciences
Professor Étienne Ghys, Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences

Throughout the AGM week, interdisciplinary meetings and networking events were integral to fostering mentorship opportunities and collaboration among HKIAS Senior Fellows, CityU Faculty members, emerging researchers and students from various disciplines.

Prof. Serge Haroche, HKIAS Chairman (left) and Prof. Jeff Ou, Chair Professor of Physics (right).
Prof. Habib Ammari, HKIAS Senior Fellows (left) met with the CityUHK students.

These events reaffirmed HKIAS’s unwavering commitment to fostering global collaboration and scientific excellence over the past decade. As the Institute celebrated its 10th anniversary, we look forward to organizing further initiatives that will enhance the international profile of the science and engineering community at CityUHK and explore new frontiers in research and collaboration.

For more details on the celebration events, please visit HKIAS past events.