CityU confers honorary awards on three outstanding persons
City University of Hong Kong (CityU) conferred honorary doctoral degrees on Professor Frederick Ma Si-hang, GBS, JP, Mr Yeung Kin-man, JP and Professor Ada Yonath, in recognition of their significant contributions to education and the well-being of society. The award ceremony was held today (13 October). Dr Chung Shui-ming, University Pro-Chancellor, presided over the ceremony. (For the biographies of the Honorary Doctorates, please refer to the attached pages.)
Mr Herman Hu Shao-ming, Council Chairman, and Professor Way Kuo, President, also attended the ceremony.
In addressing the congregation on behalf of the honorary graduates, Professor Yonath thanked CityU for the honour and said all the three honorary doctors set for themselves significant goals and to perform their utmost in reaching them. To conclude her speech, she said, “Consequently, all three awards are bestowed in recognition of our significant contributions to humanity, to advancing enthusiasm for creativity and to increasing the respect for knowledge among the younger generation. These are great human principles and I am certain CityU will continue to show its appreciation to such values.”
In his speech, Professor Kuo thanked the graduates for joining CityU. “Our Honorary Graduates join us at a very exciting point in our development as an institute of higher education. We have recently announced excellent news in terms of funding and research, and also in student achievement in the academic as well as the sporting side to life. These items of good news are wonderful complements to the great honour that Professor Ma, Mr Yeung and Professor Yonath have paid CityU by accepting our Honorary Awards.”
Biographies of the 2016 Honorary Doctorates
Professor Frederick Ma Si-hang, Chairman of MTR Corporation Limited, received an Honorary Doctor of Social Science.
Professor Ma has an outstanding record of professional achievements. Since graduating from the University of Hong Kong in 1973, he has taken up major positions in various local and overseas banks, other financial institutions and major companies, including Chase Manhattan Bank, Royal Bank of Canada Dominion Securities, JP Morgan Chase Co., Kumagai Gumi (HK) Limited and Pacific Century Cyberworks Limited.
In 2002 he joined the Hong Kong SAR Government as the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, and in 2007 he assumed the post of Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development. In 2009, he was appointed a Member of the International Advisory Council of China Investment Corporation, in 2013, he was made a Member of the Global Advisory Council of the Bank of America, and currently, he holds the positions of Independent Non-Executive of the FWD Group, Director of Husky Energy Inc., and Non-Executive Director of China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO).
With his extensive experience in the financial sector, Professor Ma was appointed an Honorary Professor of the School of Economics and Finance at the University of Hong Kong in 2008, a Professor of Practice (Finance) at the Institute of Advanced Executive Education at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2012, and an Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Business Administration at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013. In 2014, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences by Lingnan University.
In recognition of his substantial contributions to public finance, financial services and economic development in Hong Kong, he was awarded a Gold Bauhinia Star by the Government in 2009 and appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2010.
Mr Yeung Kin-man, Founder and Chief Executive of Biel Crystal (HK) Manufactory Limited, received an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration.
Mr Yeung was born and raised in Hong Kong and has a storied career, starting from scratch as an entrepreneur, setting up a watch glass manufacturing business at the age of 31, and developing it into a global leader of mobile phone glass covers and smartphone touch screens.
With his keen interest in research and development and a keen eye for innovation, his company developed rapidly. Mr Yeung first produced cover glass for watches on the Mainland in the 1980s. With the advent of the mobile phone, he quickly recognised the potential for making glass covers for mobiles, and later, touch screens for smartphones, making record breakthroughs.
Extending his business widely, Mr Yeung operates branches in Shenzhen, Huizhou, Anhui, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Switzerland, Korea, Taiwan, etc. Starting as a pioneer in the industry, he built an empire. In 2016, his company Biel Crystal ranked 68th and 23rd in Top 500 enterprises and Top 100 manufacturers, respectively, in Guangdong.
Mr Yeung has been an active participant in public service on the Mainland and Hong Kong. His many present public roles include being a member of the Huizhou Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, member of the Shenzhen Longgang District Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Consultant of Heung Yee Kuk New Territories, member of the Board of Trustee of The Better Hong Kong Foundation, President of the Hong Kong Industrial and Commercial Association, Executive President of the Federation of Hong Kong Guangdong Community Organisations Limited, Executive Vice Chairman of the Happy Hong Kong Charity Foundation, and Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, among others. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2016.
In addition, Mr Yeung received many awards including the Fifth Outstanding Corporate Social Responsibility Award, and was named Leader of the Year 2015, The Third Global Touch Industry Most Influential Enterprise Businessman in 2015 and Outstanding Entrepreneur of Guangdong.
Mr Yeung has been involved in many different kinds of charity works, which have contributed a great deal to society and the nation. He received the Huizhou Philanthropist Award for three consecutive years and was made an honorary citizen of Huizhou. In 2015, he donated HK$200 million to CityU to support research and student exchange in veterinary medicine.
Professor Ada Yonath, a distinguished scholar and a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, received an Honorary Doctor of Science.
Professor Yonath’s research interests are in protein biosynthesis and the antibiotics hampering it, pathogenic parasites and the origin of life. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, obtained a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), and held post-doctoral positions at the Mellon Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US.
In the seventies she joined the WIS, where she established the first structural-biology laboratory in Israel and currently she is the Director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Assemblies at the WIS. From 1986 to 2004, Professor Yonath headed the Max-Planck Research Unit for Ribosome Structure in Hamburg, Germany.
She is a member of a dozen academies, including the US National Academy of Sciences; the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina); and the Pontificia Accademia delle Scienze (Vatican).
Professor Yonath has received numerous honours and awards for her scientific accomplishments. She holds 27 honorary doctorates from universities in different countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Poland and the Philippines.
Professor Yonath received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, along with two other scientists, for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, making her the first woman in 45 years to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Her other awards include the Israel Prize, Louisa-Gross-Horwitz Prize, Linus-Pauling Gold Medal, Wolf Prize, L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, and Albert-Einstein World Award of Science.
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