The President Goes to Europe

Institute for Advanced Study Hosts Major Forum

In the HKUST Family

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This may be the digital age, but there is no substitute for the personal touch that comes with face-to-face meetings for building ties that endure.

HKUST has been a magnet attracting local and overseas scholars and students because of our rapid rise in rankings and international recognitions. But reaching out and building bridges is part of being an international university. To this end, the President, Prof Tony F Chan, together with our Vice-President for Institutional Advancement, Dr Eden Y Woon, took time out of their jam-packed schedules for a swing through Europe to visit some of the venerable seats of learning and research.

From 23 October to 1 November 2011, they had no time to play tourist. They called on 10 universities and two institutions. Included in their itineraries are the following tertiary institutions: In England, Oxford, Imperial College London, University College London; in France, École normale supérieure (ENS), Université Paris et Marie Curie (UPMC) and École Polytechnique;

in the Netherlands, Leiden University and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft); in Switzerland, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich).

You cannot visit old Europe without rubbing against its history. Oxford, for one, is 900 years old. Leiden University, twinned with Oxford, has an enchanting tale all its own. In the 16th century, as a reward for heroically repelling a Spanish invasion, the king gave the town the choice of a 10-year tax moratorium or the gift of a university. Wisely, the people of Leiden chose the latter. In modern times, Leiden was better known as the 'Coldest Place on Earth' for its laboratory that developed cryogenics.

HKUST, at 20, is academically speaking the new kid on the block. But you wouldn't know it from the warm reception extended to them by their European counterparts. The heads of seven out of the 10 universities all found time to sit down and talked ties with the HKUST delegation.

As leaders of a research university, President Chan and Dr Woon also visited Europe's world-leading research institute CERN which, equipped with powerful data-processing facilities and employing nearly 8,000 scientists, is known to the world for the planet’s largest particle physics laboratory. They also called at the World Economic Forum, the Swiss non-proﬁt foundation famous for its annual meeting of intellectual, business and political leaders at Davos.

This visit serves another purpose. The President and Dr Woon met with postgraduate students from ﬁve of the universities who are keen on studying or working at HKUST.

In between these meetings, they found time to introduce HKUST to local media representatives. In all, nine

members in responsible positions scattered throughout Europe. President Chan and Dr Woon held warm get-togethers with our alumni in all four countries visited. As the old Chinese saying goes, "There is no greater joy than meeting old friends in foreign places."

This visit lasted just 10 days, but the ties that it grows will last immeasurably far longer.

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The President Goes to Europe Institute for Advanced Study Hosts Major Forum In the HKUST Family

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Institute for Advanced Study Hosts Major Forum

HKUST's Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) co-hosts the UC RUSAL President's Forum at HKUST with UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer.

Jim O'Neill Provides Insight into the Future of BRICS

The University invited Dr Jim O'Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) - the renowned economist who coined the prominent BRIC concept - to conduct his very ﬁrst public lecture in Hong Kong. Dr O'Neill presented his views on the changing dynamics of the world and the rapid rise and importance of BRIC countries, as well as the current economic crisis.

The BRIC acronym has become synonymous with the remarkable rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China and their inﬂuence on the world economy. The concept of the "Next 11" on the other hand, is a simple description to bracket the 11 most populous countries and to see if they might have a BRIC-like impact on the world.

Talking about the rise of the 'Growth Markets', a grouping which includes the four BRIC countries and the four largest N-11 countries - namely, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia and Turkey, Dr O'Neill shared his views on how their involvement will lead to great global prosperity.

Following the lecture, Dr O'Neill engaged in a constructive dialogue with HKUST President Tony F Chan and answered questions from the audience.

Dr Jim O'Neill is currently the Chairman of GSAM and is responsible for overseeing the global operation of the Asset Management Division. Prior to assuming this role in September 2010, he was head of Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1995 as a partner, co-head of Global Economics Research and Chief Currency Economist. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Dr O'Neill worked for Swiss Bank Corporation and the Bank of America.

In 2010 RUSAL and HKUST established a ﬁve-year cooperative agreement. Under the sponsorship of US$1.5 million, RUSAL would support the development of HKUST's Institute for Advanced Study, establish scholarships and conduct research project on the application of innovative technologies for using aluminium in construction. The UC RUSAL President's Forum welcomes the world's renowned speakers to Hong Kong.

IAS also hosted Nobel Lectures and Distinguished Lectures with top scholars, attracting enthusiastic response.

IAS Nobel Lecture Prof David Gross

Prof David Gross from the University of California at Santa Barbara

laboratory. Prof Gross won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of asymptotic freedom, which focuses on understanding the strong interactions that bind quarks and nuclear matter to string theory.

Prof Robert Engle

Prof Robert Engle from New York University delivered a lecture on 'Global Financial Stability and Long Run Risks'. At the talk, Prof Engle discussed the concept of risk management and how to utilize volatility models in making forecasts. Prof Engle was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences for his breakthrough research on the concept of autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH), a statistical model of volatility that captured the tendency of stock prices and other ﬁnancial variables to move between high volatility and low

volatility periods. The ﬁnding was ﬁrst mentioned in Econometrica, 1982. The model has become an essential tool used for asset pricing and evaluation of portfolio risk.

Prof Edward Prescott

Prof Edward Prescott, from Arizona State University and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis believed that eliminating capital income taxes will greatly increase savings opportunities and make savings for retirement system feasible with only modest amount of government debt. In recognition of his contributions, Prof Prescott was awarded the 2004 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences.

IAS Distinguished Lecture Prof Justin Yifu Lin

Prof Justin Yifu Lin, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank provided a framework to analyze the causes behind the dramatic changes of China's economy throughout the centuries. As a result, China has been the most dynamic economy in the world. He believed that the current economic theory does not apply to the Chinese economy and drawn some lessons from the Chinese experiences for other developing countries.

Prior to joining the Bank, Prof Lin served as the Founding Director and Professor of the China Centre for Economic Research (CCER) at Peking University. He had also been teaching at HKUST from 1995 to 2005.

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Human talent is the prime factor making HKUST a world-class research university within only 20 years. Its success is enabled by the joint efforts of its excellent faculty, its team of professional administrators and supporting staff. By setting up the President's Outstanding

在文檔中 Genesis - HKUST Newsletter, January 2012 (頁 35-39)