New appointment
Professor Stella W Pang has been appointed as Chair Professor of Electronic Engineering in the Department of Electronic Engineering. Professor Pang received her PhD degree from Princeton University, US and, before joining CityU, she was a Professor at the University of Michigan. Professor Pang is an outstanding academic scholar and researcher with impressive publications to her credit in the area of electronics.

President's lecture series
In the President's Lecture Series on 11 January, Professor Paul K Chu, Chair Professor of Materials Engineering at CityU, will deliver a talk on "Surface Engineering and Modification of Materials". Professor Chu will explain the latest developments in this important field and highlight the recent breakthroughs achieved by CityU's Plasma Laboratory in micro/opto-electronic materials, nanomaterials and biomedical implants.

Distinguished lecture
Professor Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, the 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics, is scheduled to deliver a talk on "Advances in Atomic Physics from Optical Pumping to Quantum Gases" in the upcoming France-Hong Kong Distinguished Lecture Series on 13 January. Professor Cohen-Tannoudji is Honorary Professor at Collège de France and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

Equine symposium
The Asian Equine Upper Airway Symposium jointly organised by CityU, the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club will be held on 11–13 January. The symposium will cover both basic and advanced information for equine veterinary surgeons to help them enhance their expertise in diagnosis and management of equine upper airway diseases.

Gateway Education Fair
A Gateway Education (GE) Fair on CityU campus on 10–12 January will introduce more than 60 GE courses available to students. GE Fulbright Scholars will be present at the fair to answer questions and provide professional advice and guidance, while GE Ambassadors who have studied GE courses will be there to share their experiences. 

City Literary Award
The 7th City Literary Award is now open for entries. With the theme "Engaging Nature", the award is designed to encourage young writers in Hong Kong and Macau to express their feelings and ideas about the environment, and to promote awareness of appreciating nature in the city and on campus. There are four different categories: prose, short story, poetry and, art and cultural criticism. Students in tertiary institutions and youngsters between the ages of 15 and 24 in Hong Kong and Macau can submit their entries on or before 27 January.

Chinese New Year Staff Party
The Chinese New Year Staff Party on 31 January will celebrate the Year of the Dragon. There will be a buffet lunch, celebratory programmes and handicraft stalls. The events are being organised by the Human Resources Office.

Kudos
Graduates of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering (CA) have won six awards from the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. Chow Pui-ting (PhD), Pang Hoi-yan (MPhil) and Zhan Xiaoxin (MSc) won the Dissertation/Thesis Awards for Postgraduate Students with their paper "Phase Transition Drivers of Withdrawing Behaviour in Construction Project Dispute Negotiation," "Anatomy of Construction Disputes" and "A Quantitative Model to Volume Forecasting of Tunnel Projects under BOT Mode in Hong Kong," respectively. The first two papers were supervised by Professor Cheung Sai-on and the third was supervised by Dr Lam Ka-chi, Associate Professor, from CA. Another three fresh graduates from CA have won the Outstanding Final Year Dissertation Awards 2011. Jiao Lidan got the top award in property and facility management and Mak Mei-yu got the 2nd award in quantitative surveying. Their projects were supervised by Dr Mei-yung Leung, Assistant Professor. Tam Ka-yu got the 2nd award in building surveying. The project was supervised by Dr Daisy Yeung Kam-lan, Teaching Fellow.

Leung Kwan-lan and Cao Chenwei, fresh graduates from the Department of Physics and Materials Science (AP), have won the 1st and 3rd prizes, respectively, at the Best Paper on Materials 2011 competition organised by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Materials Division. They were supervised by Dr Jonathan Chung Chi-yuen, Associate Professor at AP.