On August 20, 2026, the J.M. Ko Award Ceremony was held at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Established in 2023 and named after Professor J.M. Ko (Jan-Ming Ko), the first Chair Professor of Structural Engineering at PolyU and founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal Advances in Structural Engineering, the award recognizes outstanding young scholars aged 45 or under who have made significant contributions to structural engineering. The ceremony was chaired by PolyU President Professor J.G. Teng, with Professor J.M. Ko and donor Mr. K.F. Yau in attendance. The 2025 laureates were Professor Jamie Padgett of Rice University, USA, and Professor Dimitrios Lignos of EPFL, Switzerland. Professor Yi-Qing Ni was invited to the ceremony and delivered an academic presentation entitled “Building Climate-Resilient Coastal Cities”. The presentation covered the team’s latest research achievements in urban wind environment monitoring, LiDAR network observation, wind-resistant and disaster-prevention design for the Northern Metropolis, and intelligent early warning of wind-induced responses of high-rise buildings, demonstrating a full-chain technological framework for climate-resilient coastal cities from global to urban to building scales.
