The cover of Nature (4 May 2017, Volume 545, Number 7652) shows the microstructure of an exceptionally strong thin-film magnesium alloy captured using transmission electron microscopy. Produced by dual-phase nanostructuring, this alloy has a strength that approaches the ideal theoretical limit. Nanostructuring of crystalline metal alloys can yield high-strength materials, but these tend to soften as the strain is increased. In this latest work, IAS Senior Fellow Professor Jian Lu and his team combine the benefits of nanocrystallinity with those of single-phase amorphous metallic glasses to yield a dual-phase material --- MgCu2 nanocrystalline grains (6 nm) enclosed in an amorphous glassy shell (2 nm) --- that resulted in the strongest thin-film magnesium alloy to be made so far. Cover image: Susanna Siu & Ge Wu/City University of Hong Kong.

Professor Frank Kelly, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) of City University of Hong Kong, delivered a lecture in the latest installment of the IAS Distinguished Lecture Series: Frontiers in Operations Research/Operations Management on 7 April.

A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has achieved a ground-breaking advancement in materials research by successfully developing the first-ever supra-nano magnesium alloy.

A distinguished scientist, Professor Jean Salençon, Member of the French Academy of Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at City University of Hong Kong, delivered a distinguished lecture for IAS titled “Equilibrium and Forces: from Aristotle to Lagrange” on 22 March.

An eminent scholar Professor Pierre-Louis Lions, Professor at the prestigious ColIège de France in Paris and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at City University of Hong Kong, delivered a distinguished lecture titled “Interfaces, junctions & stratifications" on 2 March.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, IAS Senior Fellow Professor Stephen Smale and Dr. Indika Rajapakse from the University of Michigan Medical School present a way to employ math as a tool to reveal how genetic material and the relationships of cells ultimately produce the function of a various tissue types.

The French government has bestowed the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur on Professor Jian Lu, Vice-President (Research and Technology) (VPRT) and Dean of Graduate Studies at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) since November 2013. The Légion d’Honneur is the highest national order led by the President of France who services as grand master of the order.

Two renowned scientists delivered lectures on porous metallic glasses and water studies at two Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Distinguished Lectures at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) held on 17 and 20 January, respectively.

A renowned scholar in operations management delivered a distinguished lecture held by the Institute for Advanced Study at City University of Hong Kong on 15 December. In the monopoly pricing situation, firms optimally vary prices to learn that demand and variation must be sufficiently high to ensure complete asymptotic learning, according to Professor Birge.

Three eminent scholars from the mainland and Taiwan jointly delivered a lecture titled "Rediscovery of an Authentic Artwork by Cao Xueqin: A Sole Piece of His Poetry, Calligraphy, Painting and Seal" for the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Distinguished Lecture Series at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) on 13 December.