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The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) will confer Honorary Doctorates upon five prominent figures in recognition of their outstanding achievements and contributions at its 13th Congregation to be held on 1 December (Saturday).

This year's honorees include an industrialist, a space scientist from the Chinese mainland, a Nobel Laureate and two educators. They are: Dr Roy Chung Chi-ping, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of Techtronic Industries Co Ltd; Prof. Luan Enjie, Commander-in-Chief of China’s Lunar Exploration Programme; Prof. Ryoji Noyori, 2001 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry; Dr Henry Wu Hung-lick and Dr Chung Chi-yung, President and Principal of the Hong Kong Shue Yan University.

Dr Roy Chung Chi-ping has made tremendous contributions to the industry. Under his able leadership, Techtronic has enjoyed continuous growth over the years, and is now the world’s leading supplier of home improvement products. He is also actively engaged in public services, including serving as Vice-Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries and Member of the Commission on Strategic Development. He was appointed a Justice of Peace in 2005 and also a recipient of the Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong in 1997. As a long-serving PolyU Council Member and Deputy Council Chairman from 2002 to 2007, he was instrumental in formulating university policies and supporting fund-raising initiatives. He will be conferred the Honorary Degree of the Doctor of Business Administration.

Prof. Luan Enjie is the helmsman of China’s Lunar Exploration Programme. After completing undergraduate and postgraduate education respectively at the Harbin Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University in the 1960s, he embarked on a challenging career in space industry. Over the years, he has not only contributed to the theoretical foundation of space science, but also pushed ahead with the development of the Long March Rocket and launch vehicles for manned space missions. While serving as Director of the China National Space Administration from 1998 to 2004, he had steered the country’s space policies for the 21st century and cultivated strategic partnerships with European and Russian space agencies. He will be conferred the Honorary Degree of the Doctor of Engineering.

Prof. Ryoji Noyori won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, together with Prof. William S. Knowles and Prof. K. Barry Sharpless, for their work on asymmetric synthesis of organic compounds. Their pioneering research has subsequently led to the development and industrial production of important new drugs such as cure for Parkinson’s disease. He is currently President of RIKEN, a Japanese national natural sciences research institute with nearly 3,000 scientists, and Chairman of the country’s Education Rebuilding Council. He has been affiliated with PolyU over the years and was conferred the title of Distinguished Honorary Professor in 2002. He will be conferred the Honorary Degree of the Doctor of Science.

Dr Henry Wu Hung-lick and Dr Chung Chi-yung are founders of the territory’s first private university. Out of their genuine concern for the shortage of tertiary education in the 1970s, they founded Shue Yan College as an independent liberal arts college. With their unremitting efforts, Shue Yan has grown from a relatively small college with only eight classrooms and some 200 students in its early years to become a university with 13 academic departments offering 10 degree programmes and a student enrolment of about 4,000. Over the years, they have overcome many obstacles in bringing Shue Yan to its present scale, even to the point of selling their own property to fund the construction of the new campus. Shue Yan was ultimately granted full university status in late 2006. They will be conferred the Honorary Degree of the Doctor of Social Science.

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