World-renowned academics in Hong Kong addressed key academic questions as they participated in the virtual HKIAS Distinguished Lecture series in November 2020. During two lectures delivered as the second half of a four-part series, senior fellows from the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) explored advanced mathematical analysis as well as pioneering approaches to materials science and engineering.

Now into its fourth year of operation, the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) has seen the number of Senior Fellows shoot up, enhanced output, a recalibrated strategic direction and new premises for galvanising intellectual thought leadership across campus and further afield.

The flagship HK Tech Forum series was initiated by Professor Way Kuo, President of City University of Hong Kong (CityU), and hosted by the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS), CityU. Under the theme “Empowering Society for a Better Future”, the series serves as a dynamic platform for discussing innovative strategies and approaches to major challenges in science and technology. The 5th and the 6th forums concluded the 2022 inaugural series, attracting leading academic and industry researchers from around the world to share their insights on quantum physics and complex systems; as well as metabolism in health and disease on 7-9 and 15-16 December respectively.

A renowned engineering scholar, Professor Ye Yinyu, delivered a lecture on 4 January in the latest installment of City University of Hong Kong’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) Distinguished Lecture Series: Frontiers in Operations Research/ Operations Management.

Sir Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience and philosophy at the School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London, has been awarded the President’s Research Medal, the College of Optometrists’ most prestigious honour. It was presented at the Wellcome Collection on 25 January when Professor Blakemore delivered the College’s Research Excellence Lecture, ‘A visual experience’, to a packed audience that included leading members of the optometric research community.

Professor Tobin J. Marks will receive the Harvey Prize for his ground-breaking research that has both fundamental and practical significance, in the areas of catalysis, organo-f-element chemistry, electronic and photonic materials, and coordination chemistry, all of which have strongly impacted contemporary chemical science.