HKEST Award 2024

Managing Director, ATI Engineering Ltd

Ir Dr Alex Chan is a Senior Vice President of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. He graduated from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1977 with a BSc(Eng) in mechanical engineering and in 1988 with a PhD in fluid dynamics.

He has extensive experience in engineering projects including buildings, power plants, road tunnels and mass transit systems in Hong Kong SAR, Mainland cities, Singapore, Tokyo, London and New York. His focused areas are safety, efficient and reliable plant operation, improvement to environment, and products innovation and development.

Locally Ir Dr Chan was President of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (2003-04) and Chair of the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation and Vocational Qualifications (2015-21). Internationally, he was Chair of the Sydney Accord Chair (2007-11) and Chair of the International Professional Engineers Agreement (2014-17).

Vice President (Research and Innovation)
Chair Professor of Thermal and Environmental Engineering
Director of Policy Research Centre for Innovation and Technology

Professor Christopher Chao is Vice President (Research and Innovation) and Chair Professor of Thermal and Environmental Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He oversees the planning and development of research, innovation and strategic research areas. As an accomplished scholar in thermal and environmental engineering, Professor Chao has published extensively in leading journals. He has been making active contribution to the professional community and the Government, and is keen to promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer.

Professor Chao received his BSc(Eng) degree in Mechanical Engineering (First Class) from The University of Hong Kong, and obtained his MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in the U.S. He was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Hong Kong prior to joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in September 2021.

Managing Director of Alphotonics Limited and former CEO of ASTRI

Dr Nim Cheung is Managing Director of AIphotonics Limited in Hong Kong Science Park, and director of several listed and start-up companies in Hong Kong. He was formerly CEO of Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), the largest ICT research organization in Hong Kong. He served as Inaugural Director of National Engineering Research Centre for Application Specific Integrated Circuit Systems, the first National Engineering Centre in Hong Kong.

Dr Cheung has held management positions at Bell Labs, Bellcore, and Telcordia Technologies. He is a Telcordia Fellow and a Fellow of IEEE and HKAES. He was President of IEEE Communications Society and has chaired IEEE’s Fellow Committee and Awards Board.

Dr Cheung is Honorary Professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and served as Consulting Professor at Stanford University. He received his B.Sc. degree from University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. degree from California Institute of Technology. He was recipient of HKU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010.

Research Professor of Electronic Engineering and Director of Shun Hing Institute of Advanced Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Prof Ching Pak Chung is Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Prof Ching is a dedicated scholar and educator. He has engaged himself in frontier research in the areas of wireless communication, signal processing and speech technologies for almost four decades. He has published widely in international top tier journals and conference proceedings. His research achievements include pioneering the development of efficient automatic speech recognition algorithms for code-mixing utterances; developing efficient power control strategy for multiple-spectrum-sharing networks, and designing advanced space time code for asynchronous cooperative communications.

Prof Ching helped CUHK to establish one of the largest research-oriented engineering schools majoring in computer science, information technology and electronic engineering in Hong Kong in the nineties. He also actively participates in technology transfer and many of his research outcomes have been licensed to local and overseas organizations. He is also involved in various capacities in the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Ltd, Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre, and Nano and Advanced Materials Institute Limited.

Prof Ching was awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Award in 2000 and the HKIE Hall of Fame in 2010. In addition, Prof Ching also plays an active role in community services. He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) and the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) by the HKSAR Government in 2017 and 2010, respectively, in recognition of his long and distinguished public and community services.

Research Professor of Electronic Engineering,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Kei May Lau is a Research Professor of Electronic Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She served as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, Optica, and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, a recipient of the IET J J Thomson medal for Electronics, OSA Nick Holonyak Jr. Award, and IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award. Lau’s research work is focused on the development of monolithic integration of semiconductor devices on industry-standard silicon and SOI substrates. She was an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (1996-2002) and Electron Device Letters (2016-2019), an Associate Editor for the Journal of Crystal Growth and Applied Physics Letters.

She was born in Hong Kong and received all her pre-college education (K-12) from the Pui Ching Middle School, B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering,
City University of Hong Kong

Professor Luk is Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Science, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the IEEE. He is Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong. He is specialized in Applied Electromagnetics with seminal contributions in Antenna Designs for Wireless Communications and Sensing Connectivity. He was Founding Director of State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves. He is an author of over 700 publications. He received the State Technological Invention Award, Ho Leung Ho Li Foundation Prize, Guanghua Engineering Prize and IEEE John Kraus Antenna Award.

Managing Director, Urban Renewal Authority

Ir Wai Chi Sing is a civil engineer by profession. He joined the Hong Kong Government in August 1980, and has since served in the Transport Department, the Highways Department, and the former Environment, Transport and Works Bureau. He was a former Director of Highways and was Permanent Secretary for Development (Works) from June 2010 to April 2015. Ir Wai has taken part in a vast variety of major infrastructural projects.

After retirement, Ir Wai has been appointed the Managing Director of the Urban Renewal Authority since 15 June 2016; and a Director of the Board of Urban Renewal Fund. Ir Wai has recently advocated a set of bespoke planning tools aiming to restore the momentum of urban renewal.

Ir Wai holds a master's degree in transportation engineering from Purdue University in the United States. He has professional experience in civil, structural and geotechnical engineering and is a fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Lam Woo and Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Dr Wu obtained his BEng in Electrical Engineering from Tianjin University in 1984, MSc in Medical Physics from University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1988, and PhD in Radiological Sciences from University of California – Irvine in 1993. From 1990 to 2003, Dr Wu worked in Columbia University first as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering. Dr Wu moved to University of Hong Kong in 2003. His primary research focus is to develop state-of-the-art functional MRI methodologies for probing brain circuits in rodent models by combing functional, diffusion and spectroscopic MRI with electrophysiology, behavioral assessment and emerging neuromodulation approaches such as optogenetics. Dr Wu is an elected Fellow of ISMRM, IEEE, and AIMBE. He is the recipient of 2018 China Guanghua Science and Technology Award (中国光华科技奖). Dr Wu is the Asia-Pacific Editor of NMR in Biomedicine (NBM) since 2011 and Editorial Board Member of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (MRM).