Prof Roderick S. C. Wong was born in Shanghai, China. He obtained his BA degree in Mathematics from San Diego State College in 1965 and his PhD from the University of Alberta in 1969. He started his career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Manitoba, where he stayed for almost 25 years. In 1973, he was promoted to Associate Professor and in 1979 to Full Professor. In 1986, he was appointed Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics, a post he held until he left the University of Manitoba in 1994.
Prof Wong joined City University of Hong Kong in early 1994 to take up the post of Professor of Mathematics. He was concurrently appointed Head of the then newly formed Department of Mathematics. In 1995, he led the efforts for the establishment of the Liu Bie Ju Centre for Mathematical Sciences and was appointed Director of the Centre until 30 June 2019. He was the Dean of College of Science and Engineering (1998 to 2004), Dean of Research and Graduate Studies (October 2004 to March 2006), Vice-President (Research & Technology) and Dean of Graduate Studies (April 2006 to November 2009). His last management post was Vice-President for Development & External Relations (December 2009 to June 2015). Prof Wong retired from City University of Hong Kong on 1 July 2019, and he was conferred Emeritus Professor by City University of Hong Kong in 2020 in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the mathematical development of CityU, support of research activities, and service to the community during his tenure of office from 1994 to 2019.
Prof Wong was the Vice-President of the Canadian Applied Mathematics Society in 1988 and the President in 1989 and 1990. During 1988-1991, he served on the Grants Selection Committee for Pure and Applied Mathematics, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. From 1991-1993, he was a Vice-President of the Canadian Mathematical Society, and from 1996-1998, he was the President of the Hong Kong Mathematical Society.
Prof Wong was the Co-Editor-in-Chief of “Methods and Applications of Analysis” from 1993-1999 and “Acta Mathematica Scientia” from 1997-2005. He was also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of “Analysis and Applications” from 2003-2012. He also served on the Editorial Board of “Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics”, “Comptes rendus mathématiques / Mathematical Reports”, “Chinese Annals of Mathematics”, “Studies in Applied Mathematics”, “Journal of Approximation Theory”, “Asymptotic Analysis”, “Journal of Mathematical Research with Applications”, “Chinese Journal of Comtemporary Mathematics”, “Analysis and Applications”, and as the Book Series Editor of “Series in Analysis” published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd.
The honours bestowed on Prof Wong include the Killam Research Fellowship (1982-1984), given by the Canada Council, and the Rh Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship and Research (1984) from the University of Manitoba. Prof Wong is holding the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada, an honour he obtained in 1993 through election. In 2001, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences of Turin (Italy) as a foreign member. In 2004, he was awarded the Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government. In 2007, he was elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences, and in 2008, he was awarded Doctorate Honoris Causa by Ovidius University, Constantza, Romania. He was elected as one of the Founding Fellows of the Hong Kong Institution of Science in 2009.
