UM will confer honorary doctorates on seven distinguished individuals
The University of Macau (UM) will confer honorary doctorates on Lawrence Juen-yee Lau, Kaixian Chen, Shuji Nakamura, Li Lanjuan, Lee Hau Leung, Zhu Lilan and Chio Fai Aglaia Kong in recognition of their outstanding achievements and significant contributions to social development and education. Some of the recipients will receive their doctorates at the Ceremony for the Conferment of Honorary and Higher Degrees 2021 to be held on 11 December (Saturday) at 4:00pm in the University Hall. In addition, PhD degrees, master’s degrees, and postgraduate certificates/diplomas will be presented at the ceremony. The ceremony will be broadcast live so that graduates and their families and friends from all over the world can participate in the event.
Lawrence Juen-yee Lau is currently the Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He became a professor at Stanford University in 1976. He then served as Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Economic Development, Emeritus, upon his retirement from Stanford University in 2006. Lau is also currently a fellow of the Econometric Society, an honorary senior research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and an academician of Academia Sinica, Taipei. He has received honorary doctorates from various renowned universities, including the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Soka University, Waseda University, Taiwan Central University, Fudan University, and CUHK. In 1966, he developed one of the first econometric models of China, which is still being used today, making significant contribution to China’s economic development.
Kaixian Chen is a medicinal chemist. He has been long engaged in the study of the structure-activity relationships of drugs and the structural prediction of bioactive small-molecule compounds. He and his research team have put forward and improved multiple methods and technologies of computer-aided drug design, which have been applied to molecular simulations and theoretical studies of the interactions between drugs and biological macromolecules. In addition, Chen has been actively conducting drug design research based on the three-dimensional structures of drugs and receptors, and some of the research outcomes have led to the discovery of a variety of compounds that are promising candidates for new drugs. These innovative studies have fostered interdisciplinary research in medicinal chemistry, life sciences, and computer sciences, and are highly acclaimed in academic circles at home and abroad.
Shuji Nakamura was one of the pioneers in the conversion of electrical energy into light energy and winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1992, he developed the highly efficient blue light-emitting diodes, allowing people around the world to enjoy more affordable electric lighting applications. Since then, lighting technology has ushered in a new era. In addition, Nakamura holds more than 200 patents in the United States and over 300 patents in Japan. He has also published more than 550 papers in related fields.
Li Lanjuan is a renowned epidemiologist and a key promoter of infectious disease control in China. She put forward the theory of infectious microecology to shed new light on infection control and treatment. In addition, Li invented a unique artificial liver system for the treatment of severe hepatitis and hepatic failures, significantly reducing mortality rates among patients. She is therefore hailed as China’s pioneer of artificial liver. During the H7N9 epidemic, Li adopted the treatment protocol of ‘four resistance and two balances’, which significantly increased the survival rate of patients with severe infections. This is considered a prominent achievement of China in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, and has been highly commended both at home and abroad.
Lee Hau Leung is known as the father of supply chain management in academic circles. His fundamental research in the 1990s opened up this new academic field and revolutionised logistics operations and business development around the world. He is currently the Thoma Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is also the founding director of the Stanford Institute for Innovations in Developing Economies, and the co-director of the Stanford Value Chain Innovation Initiative. In the last decade, he set up a center in Ghana to help local entrepreneurs. He has also worked on many projects with NGOs across Africa, India, and Asia on socially responsible supply chain management, and the projects have successfully created positive societal impacts on developing economies.
Zhu Lilan was the minister of science and technology of China. She also served as a member of the Standing Committee of the ninth and tenth National People’s Congress, as well as the deputy chair and the chair of the National People’s Congress Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee. Zhu has been long engaged in research on polymer reaction kinetics, polymer material analysis, and structural characterisation, and has won national awards for her achievements in science and technology and the application of research results. Because of her outstanding accomplishments in promoting international cooperation in science and technology and facilitating the development and industrialisation of advanced technology in China, Zhu was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Chinese Institute of Engineers – USA in 1993. She was also elected a fellow of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 1997 and received the Great Cross with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998 as well as a state medal of Ukraine from the country’s prime minister.
Chio Fai Aglaia Kong is an outstanding engineer and information technology professional, with more than 30 years of work experience in related fields. She was the chief technology officer of Cisco China, the global vice president of Cisco, and the chief technology officer of Google. While working in research and development at Cisco, Kong designed and delivered six product platforms in education, healthcare, smart city development and transport, telemedicine, environmental monitoring, and building energy management, among other areas. She holds over 15 patents related to storage virtualisation, navigation, file systems, and power management, and her works have been published in various authoritative scientific journals.
More than 1,000 graduates of PhD degree programmes, master’s degree programmes, and postgraduate certificate/diploma programmes will receive their graduation certificates. These graduates come from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Business Administration, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, and Institute of Collaborative Innovation. Those who are unable to attend the ceremony in person can watch the livestreaming of the ceremony on UM’s official website at www.um.edu.mo, on its official Weibo account, or on its official YouTube account: University Of Macau.