News

Online Booking for Exam Paper Review, 18 - 22 December 2025

The online registration for exam paper review would be scheduled between 18 - 22 December 2025. Make appointment here

PolyU Mathematics and AI Ranked No.1 in Hong Kong!

We are proud to share that The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has been ranked 1st among all universities in Hong Kong in both Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence by ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2025. PolyU’s Mathematics is also ranked among the world’s top 101–150, while our Statistics has achieved a global ranking in the 151–200 band. These outstanding achievements reflect the dedication and excellence of our faculty, students, and staff. Congratulations to everyone in the PolyU mathematics and AI community for these remarkable recognitions! For more information about the ShanghaiRanking, please visit https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2025

AMA Young Scholar Prof. Zhou Zhi Named Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher 2025

We are proud to announce that our Associate Professor, Zhou Zhi, has been named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for 2025, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to mathematics and his global impact on academic research. The Highly Cited Researchers list, compiled annually by Clarivate, identifies scientists and scholars who have demonstrated significant influence through the publication of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and year in the Web of Science™. Prof. Zhou’s research excellence has earned him this prestigious distinction, placing him among the world’s most influential researchers. Prof. Zhou joined PolyU AMA as an Assistant Professor in 2017 and currently serves as an Associate Professor. His research interests include numerical analysis of PDEs, scientific computing, and inverse problems. His work is widely recognized for its innovation and impact, as evidenced by his impressive citation record and numerous publications in top-tier international journals. In addition to this latest honor, Prof. Zhou has received several other prestigious awards, including the NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Fund (国家自然科学基金优秀青年科学基金项目) in 2024, the Frontiers of Science Award at the International Congress of Basic Science in 2024, and the RGC Early Career Award in 2018/19. These recognitions underscore his exceptional contributions to advancing mathematical sciences and his unwavering commitment to academic excellence. This achievement not only showcases Prof. Zhou’s remarkable contributions to the field, but also reflects AMA’s commitment to fostering world-class research and nurturing young talent. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Prof. Zhou Zhi on this remarkable accomplishment and look forward to his continued contributions to the academic community. For the full list and further details about the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers for 2025, please visit  https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/.

Professor Sun Defeng Named 2026 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society

We are proud to announce that Chair Professor Sun Defeng, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics, has been named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2026. Professor Sun joins a distinguished group of forty mathematicians from around the world who have been selected for this honor in the program’s fourteenth year. The AMS Fellows program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. Being elected as an AMS Fellow is an acknowledgement of Professor Sun’s excellence and leadership in the mathematical sciences, as well as his significant impact on the profession. Professor Sun is internationally renowned for his research in optimization, operations research, and numerical analysis. He has made pioneering contributions to the theory and algorithms for large-scale optimization problems, including semidefinite programming, conic programming, and matrix completion. His work has been widely published in top-tier journals and has had a profound influence on both theoretical developments and practical applications in areas such as data science, engineering, and finance. In addition to the AMS Fellowship, Professor Sun’s outstanding achievements have been recognized with numerous prestigious honors. He was elected Fellow of the Operations Research Society of China (ORSC) in 2024, and named Fellow of both the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the China Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (CSIAM) in 2020. He received the RGC Senior Research Fellow Award for 2022/23, and was honored with the Beale–Orchard-Hays Prize for Excellence in Computational Mathematical Programming by the Mathematical Optimization Society in 2018. This prestigious recognition is awarded by peers in the international mathematical community, highlighting Professor Sun’s dedication and achievements in advancing mathematics. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Professor Sun Defeng on this remarkable accomplishment. To view the names and institutions of the full 2026 Class of AMS Fellows, please visit the AMS Fellows webpage.

Dr Charles LEE Receives Inaugural Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching 2025

We are delighted to announce that Dr Charles LEE Kei Fung has been honored with the inaugural Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching 2025, presented by the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences. This distinguished award recognizes Charles' dedication and significant contributions to teaching excellence. His passion and commitment have made a significant impact on our students and the academic community. Please join us in congratulating Charles on this well-deserved recognition.

Chair Professor Qiao Zhonghua Honored as CSIAM Fellow 2025

Congratulations to Chair Professor Qiao Zhonghua for being awarded the prestigious CSIAM Fellowship 2025. The award was presented and announced during the 23rd Annual Conference of the China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (CSIAM), held in Changsha from October 23 to 26, 2025. The CSIAM Fellowship is a lifetime honor recognizing distinguished members for their outstanding contributions to the field of industrial and applied mathematics. About CSIAM Founded in 1990, the China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (CSIAM) is a leading non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting collaboration between academia and industry in applied mathematics. Supervised by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, CSIAM fosters communication among mathematicians, engineers, and industry professionals to address mathematical challenges that impact economic and technological development. For more details, please visit: https://m.csiam.org.cn/1003/202510/2524.html (Chinese only) We warmly congratulate Professor Qiao Zhonghua on this well-deserved recognition and his continued excellence in advancing applied mathematics.

AMA Dr Zhang Minyi Awarded Prestigious 19th Zhong Jiaqing Mathematics Prize

We are delighted to announce that Dr Zhang Minyi, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Applied Mathematics, has been honored with the 19th Zhong Jiaqing Mathematics Prize (鍾家慶數學獎)—China’s highest accolade for mathematicians under 35, awarded by the Chinese Mathematical Society. Named after the renowned mathematician Zhong Jiaqing, the prize was established in 1988 to recognize outstanding young mathematicians in China who have made significant contributions to mathematical research. Since its inception, the award has been presented nineteen times to a total of 86 young scholars, many of whom have become leading figures across various fields of mathematics. Dr Zhang completed her bachelor’s degree at Guangdong University of Finance & Economics and earned her PhD under the supervision of Professor Zhu Changjiang at South China University of Technology in June 2024. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow conducting research under the guidance of Chair Professor Tong Yang at PolyU. Together with her collaborators, Dr Zhang has made significant breakthroughs in nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) theory, addressing complex well-posedness problems spanning multiple dimensions, wave types—including rarefaction waves and viscous shocks—and a wide range of perturbation scales from small to large. Congratulations to Dr Zhang on this exceptional recognition! Read the official announcement (in Chinese):  https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/r7kkGbdZdUBd3Pya4VbR9w

AMA Scholars Ranked the World’s Top 2% Scientists 2025

We are delighted to announce that 12 scholars from the Department of Applied Mathematics have been recognized among the World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists for 2025, as compiled by Stanford University using Scopus data. This recognition is based on a comprehensive composite citation indicator (c-score), which takes into account standardized metrics such as total citations, h-index, co-authorship, author positions, and more. The World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists list is divided into two categories: one highlights scholars’ career-long contributions (1960–2024), while the other focuses on their single-year impact for 2024. Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields according to the Science-Metrix classification. The selection includes the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or those who are in the top 2% of their sub-field. This prestigious recognition celebrates both lifetime achievement and recent research excellence. The data is based on Scopus author profiles as of August 1, 2025, and the published database is archival and will not be updated retroactively. Congratulations to all our distinguished scholars on this remarkable achievement! Your dedication and impactful research continue to inspire the entire AMA community. For more details, please visit: https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/8

Warm Welcome to our New Faculty Members to the AMA Family

To strengthen our research capabilities and build a dynamic, innovative team, the Department of Applied Mathematics regularly invites distinguished researchers at all career stages to join us. We are delighted to introduce the newest members of the AMA family, whose diverse expertise and experiences will undoubtedly enrich our academic community and contribute to our continued success. Prof. Leng Chenlei, Chair Professor of Statistics and Machine Learning Professor Leng joined us on 30 September 2025. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Science and Technology of China (1998) and a PhD in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004). He began his academic career at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Statistics and Applied Probability in 2004, becoming Associate Professor in 2010. He held visiting positions at Peking University and the University of Munich during 2011–2012, and in 2013, he joined the University of Warwick as a full Professor of Statistics. A leading statistician, Professor Leng develops innovative methods for analyzing large, complex, high-dimensional, correlated, and networked data. His research spans high-dimensional statistics, model selection, statistical learning, network data analysis, corrected data analysis, and artificial intelligence. He actively contributes to the scholarly community, serving on editorial boards of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics and Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, and previously as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B. Professor Leng is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. He was a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (2016–2022) and has received numerous awards, including the Teaching Excellence Award, Young Scientist Award (2009), Outstanding Scientist Award (2012) at NUS, and the Humboldt Fellowship (2012). He has also chaired the Research Section Committee of the Royal Statistical Society and co-directed the Oxford-Warwick Statistics Centre for Doctoral Training. Dr Li Hao, Research Assistant Professor Dr Li joined the Department of Applied Mathematics as a Research Assistant Professor on 1 July 2025. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Purdue University and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Science and Technology of China. His research interests include machine learning, numerical analysis, and scientific computing. Dr Liu Wei, Research Assistant Professor Dr Liu, also a Research Assistant Professor who joined on 1 August 2025, earned his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the design and analysis of (stochastic) first-order methods for nonlinear optimization problems, with an emphasis on developing algorithms that are both simple and efficient. Dr Selena Qian Yihe, Lecturer Dr Qian joined us on 4 August 2025. She holds a PhD from the University of Macau, a Master of Finance from the University of New South Wales, and a Bachelor of Finance from Yangzhou University. Her research interests lie in FinTech, machine learning, and asset pricing.   Dr Terry Tong Kam Hung, Teaching Fellow Dr Tong assumed duty on 18 August 2025. He earned his PhD and MPhil in Mathematics from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on algebraic combinatorics and representation theory. Dr Wang Di, Teaching Fellow Dr Wang joined us on 1 September 2025. She holds a PhD in Finance from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, a Master of Financial Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mathematics with a Statistics option from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include demography, modelling of actuarial assumptions, risk management, and financial data modelling. We warmly welcome all our new colleagues to the AMA family and look forward to their valuable contributions to our department’s growth and excellence.  

PolyU and Huawei Jointly Establish Mathematical Optimization Innovation Laboratory to Advance AI Innovation

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) signed a collaboration agreement on 17 September 2025 to officially launch the PolyU–Huawei Mathematical Optimization Innovation Laboratory (MOI) at PolyU. As the first joint laboratory of Huawei in Hong Kong focusing on developing XPU-based advanced optimization solver, the MOI marks a significant milestone in the institutions’ long-standing partnership, which began in 2007 and has fostered collaboration across communications, big data, algorithms, and materials science. The MOI will focus on advancing mathematical optimization theory, developing cutting-edge algorithms, and applying XPU-accelerated solvers to artificial intelligence and data science challenges. Leveraging PolyU’s strengths in mathematics, statistics, and operations research—ranked 31st globally in Statistics and Operations Research by the 2025 QS World University Rankings and 36th in Mathematics by U.S. News, the highest in Hong Kong—the collaboration aims to drive research and innovation at the intersection of academia and industry. Witnessed by Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU; Prof. Daniel LUO, Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences of PolyU; Ms. Jie FU, Director of the Technology Cooperation Department of Huawei; and Mr. Bo BAI, Director of the Theoretical Research Department of Huawei, the agreement was signed by Prof. Defeng SUN, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics of PolyU, and Mr. Yanhui GENG, Director of the Huawei Hong Kong Research Centre. The plaque unveiling for the MOI was officiated by representatives from both organizations, formally inaugurating the laboratory. Prof. Christopher Chao expressed his appreciation to Huawei’s continued support to PolyU, emphasizing that the partnership will nurture innovative talent, promote knowledge transfer, and accelerate the commercialization of research outcomes. Together, PolyU and Huawei are committed to advancing mathematical optimization and technological innovation, creating greater value and contributing to economic development.