Donor
Sin Wai Kin Foundation
The Late Dr David Sin Wai Kin was a pioneering business leader whose achievements have been well-recognised across multiple sectors, including but not limited to property development, hotel business, jewellery manufacturing, banking and financial services. Dr Sin, who lost the opportunity to further his studies at a young age due to the Second World War, has been a fervent supporter of higher education in Hong Kong and the Mainland, especially in preserving traditional Chinese culture and promoting Chinese literature and humanities.
Sin Wai Kin Foundation was founded not only to support students and organisations in need, but to also drive academic progress in humanities among tertiary institutes. The Foundation has established professorships at various local universities, including The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
Generous donation has been made by the Foundation to PolyU to inaugurate The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Sin Wai Kin Chinese Humanities Development Fund, with a mission to promote learning, academic exchange and research related to Chinese culture, language, history and philosophy. In the same vein, Sin Wai Kin Foundation Endowed Professorship in Humanities and Technology was established to drive advanced research and education in humanities and technologies.
Appointee
Professor Li Ping
Professor Li Ping is currently the Chair Professor of Neurolinguistics and Bilingual Studies, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and Associate Director of the University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN) of PolyU. Prior to joining PolyU, he was Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Information Sciences, and Associate Director of the Institute for CyberScience at the Pennsylvania State University in the U.S.
Appointed Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor by the Ministry of Education of China, Professor Li was also a proud recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation grant under Obama’s White House BRAIN Initiative in 2015. He previously served as President of the Society for Computation in Psychology, and Programme Director of Cognitive Neuroscience and of Perception, Action and Cognition at the U.S. National Science Foundation.
An internationally renowned scholar, Professor Li’s research focuses on the neurocognitive and computational bases of language acquisition, bilingualism, and reading comprehension in both children and adults. He uses digital technologies and cognitive neuroscience methods to study neuroplasticity and individual differences in learning, so as to understand the relationships among languages, cultures, technology, and the brain. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advance of Science, he is also the Editor-in-Chief of Brain and Language and a Senior Editor of Cognitive Science.
