The Chinese University of Hong Kong: Distinguished Professors, Academic Leaders and Biographical Sketches

CUHK's lineage of academic leadership can be roughly traced along three strands. The first is the "scholars from the south" of the founding era — Ch'ien Mu, Tang Chun-i, Jao Tsung-I and others who made New Asia College their base for Chinese classical studies. The second is the "scholar-administrators" of the 1970s–90s — Li Choh-ming, Ma Lin, Charles K. Kao, Ambrose King, Lawrence Lau and others who combined academic standing with the skills to run a university. The third is the "international academician cohort" from the 1990s to the present — the cluster of fellows of learned academies at home and abroad clustered around the chemistry department, the Faculty of Medicine and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. This article combines two levels of account: first, a directory with tables giving the full picture of successive Vice-Chancellors, academicians and endowed professorships; then long-form biographical sketches of the most representative founding figures, Vice-Chancellors and masters of scholarship.

Note on conventions and cross-references: for the award dimensions of Nobel/Fields/Turing-level scholars, see nobel-and-awards.md; for figures counted as alumni (by enrolment), see notable-alumni.md; for honorary degrees and visiting lectures, see honorary-degrees-and-visitors.md; for Kao's tenure and Nobel Prize in a dedicated dossier, see charles-kao-vice-chancellor.md.

A note on method: CUHK's academician statuses (Chinese Academy of Sciences / Chinese Academy of Engineering / Academia Sinica / British and American academies) follow the official CUHK register of academicians and have been verified one by one; anyone supported only by hearsay lists and no official corroboration is strictly excluded. Most figures in this article are deceased, retired, or serving scholars of neutral positive standing, and are named according to the record; narratives involving disputes over university governance belong to Module 13.

---

# 1. Successive Vice-Chancellors and their academic identities

Since its founding in 1963, CUHK's successive heads (English title: Vice-Chancellor and President) have been as follows, per List of CUHK Presidents^※ and CUHK-related sources:

Long-form biographies of representative Vice-Chancellors appear in Section 5 of this article; contested governance narratives around successive Vice-Chancellors belong to Module 13 (governance and restructuring); Kao's Nobel story appears in charles-kao-vice-chancellor.md.

# Rocky Tuan (stem cells / tissue engineering, 8th Vice-Chancellor)

Per Wikipedia, Tuan was born in 1951, received his PhD from Rockefeller University in 1977, and specialised in musculoskeletal biology and tissue regeneration^※; he became CUHK's eighth Vice-Chancellor in 2018, holding the Li Ka Shing Professor of Tissue Engineering and Regener Medicine, and stepped down in January 2025^※. The public discussion surrounding his resignation and departure falls under university governance and is not developed in this module; see Module 13.

# The current (9th) Vice-Chancellor (molecular biology / chemical pathology)

Per the official CUHK biography, the current Vice-Chancellor joined CUHK in 1997, developed non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), and was elected a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2023^※; for his awards and academician status, see nobel-and-awards.md; a long-form biography appears in Section 5 of this article.

Note on convention: the current Vice-Chancellor falls within this archive's neutral positive naming scope, but because automated filters block serving leaders across the board, this volume refers to him by title, with his name verifiable via the official biography page (linked above).

---

# 2. Leading scholars in the life sciences and medicine

The Faculty of Medicine and the life sciences are CUHK's most academician-dense fields. Per the official CUHK register of academicians^※:

• Joseph Sung (gastroenterology; fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, CAE) — Per the register, Sung was elected a CAE fellow in 2011^※; he taught for many years at the Faculty of Medicine, researching digestive diseases and the gut microbiome. A full biography appears in Section 5.
• Joseph Lau (hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery; fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS) — Per the register, Lau was elected a CAS fellow in 2003^※; a specialist in hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery, he has international influence in liver cancer treatment and hepatectomy.
• Kung Hsiang-fu (virology / molecular biology; CAS fellow) — Per the register, Kung was elected a CAS fellow in 1999^※; he works in molecular biology and virology.

---

# 3. Leading scholars in science and engineering

CUHK's chemistry department is the traditional powerhouse for academicians. Per the official CUHK register of academicians^※:

Among these, Henry N. C. Wong served twice as Head of New Asia College and achieved distinction on the dual tracks of science and college governance; his full biography appears in Section 5.

# Tang Xiao'ou (computer vision)

Per reports, Tang was born in 1968; after postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 he joined CUHK's Department of Information Engineering, and in 2001 founded the CUHK Multimedia Laboratory^※; his team's DeepID algorithms in face recognition had a far-reaching influence, and he later co-founded SenseTime. Per reports, he passed away on 15 December 2023 at the age of 55^※. A biography appears in Section 5.

---

# 4. Masters of the humanities and Chinese classical studies (academic standing)

CUHK has been committed since its founding to "promoting Chinese culture," and the community of classical scholars in the New Asia lineage holds a lofty place in the academic world.

• Jao Tsung-I (Chinese studies / Sinology) — Jao served for many years as Professor (Chair of Chinese) at CUHK's Department of Chinese and is a representative figure of twentieth-century Sinology and Chinese classical studies. Per reports, Jao passed away in 2018 at the age of 100; his scholarship spanned oracle bones, Dunhuang studies, historiography, literature and art, and he was known together with Ji Xianlin as "South Jao, North Ji" (南饶北季)^※. A full biography appears in Section 5.
• Ch'ien Mu, Tang Chun-i, Mou Zongsan (the New Asia lineage) — Per gathered sources, Ch'ien Mu came south to Hong Kong in 1949, and in 1950 re-organised with Tang Chun-i and Chang Pe-chieh to found New Asia College, serving as its first Head^※; Tang Chun-i, Mou Zongsan and Hsü Fu-kuan of the New Asia lineage are representatives of modern New Confucianism. The founding contributions, academic standing and New Confucian intellectual lineage of all three are developed in Section 5 and in new-asia-confucian-masters.md.

In the social sciences, the Faculty of Social Science has nurtured and gathered a number of sociologists, political scientists and economists. Among them Ambrose King (sociology; 5th Vice-Chancellor) and Lawrence Lau (economics; 6th Vice-Chancellor) combine the dual identities of scholar and university administrator; per the CUHK register, Lau was elected an Academia Sinica academician in 1982^※.

---

# 5. Long-form biographies of major figures

This section collects long-form biographies of the founders of the three founding colleges, successive Vice-Chancellors, the founding scholars of the New Asia Confucian lineage, and leading figures in science and medicine with deep ties to CUHK. CUHK was formed in 1963 from the three member colleges New Asia College, Chung Chi College and United College. Per gathered sources, Chung Chi College was founded in 1951 by Li Ying-lam, former President of Lingnan University, Ou Wei-guo, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Saint John's University, and the Anglican Bishop Ronald O. Hall; United College was formed in 1956 from five private post-secondary colleges — Guangqiao, Guangxia, Overseas Chinese, Wenhua and Pingzheng — merged together^※; the three colleges were unified as The Chinese University of Hong Kong on 17 October 1963^※.

# 5.1 Founders of the three founding colleges

# Ch'ien Mu (1895–1990) — first Head of New Asia College

Ch'ien Mu was one of twentieth-century China's most important historians and classical scholars, and the founding Head of New Asia College. Per Wikipedia, Ch'ien, courtesy name Bin Si, was born in 1895 in Wuxi, Jiangsu; a historian and philosopher, he authored over 80 works and is counted with Lü Simian, Chen Yuan and Chen Yinke among the four great modern Chinese historians^※. In 1949 he came south to Hong Kong and founded the Asia College of Commerce Evening School; in 1950, with Tang Chun-i and Chang Pe-chieh, he re-organised it as New Asia College and served as its first Head, teaching and researching there until his retirement in 1964^※. He moved to Taiwan in 1966, became an Academia Sinica academician, and died in Taipei in August 1990^※.

Under Ch'ien's stewardship, New Asia College took as its educational ideal "drawing on the spirit of the Song and Ming academies above, and adopting the Western European university tutorial system alongside it"; its motto, "Sincerity and Clarity" (誠明), comes from the Doctrine of the Mean. Ch'ien's major historical works include The Outline of Chinese National History, A Chronology of the Pre-Qin Philosophers and A New Study of Zhu Xi; his cultural mission to "summon the soul of the motherland" profoundly shaped the humanistic character of New Asia and of CUHK as a whole.

# Tang Chun-i (1909–1978) — New Asia Dean of Studies, master of New Confucianism

Tang Chun-i was one of the theoretical founders of contemporary New Confucianism and a core founder of New Asia College. Per Wikipedia, Tang was born in 1909 in Yibin, Sichuan; a modern Chinese thinker, philosopher and educator, and a leading representative of contemporary New Confucianism^※. In 1949 he went to Hong Kong and, with Ch'ien Mu and Chang Pe-chieh, founded New Asia College, serving concurrently as Dean of Studies and Head of the Philosophy Department; after CUHK was established in 1963, he became Professor (Chair of Philosophy) at New Asia College until his retirement in 1974^※. In 1958, with Hsü Fu-kuan, Mou Zongsan and Carsun Chang, he jointly issued the "Manifesto on behalf of Chinese Culture to the Peoples of the World," a programmatic document of modern New Confucianism; he died of illness in Hong Kong on 2 February 1978^※.

Tang's masterworks — Treatise on Chinese Philosophy (in its introductory, on human nature, on the Way and on teaching parts) and Existence in Life and the Realm of the Mind — reconcile Chinese, Western and Indian philosophy through his system of the "nine realms of the mind," and constitute an important edifice of New Confucian metaphysics. For the relationship between the New Confucian movement and the New Asia scholars, see new-asia-confucian-masters.md.

# Chang Pe-chieh (1905–1970) — New Asia Bursar, founder of the Economics Department

Chang Pe-chieh was one of the three founders of New Asia College, honoured together with Ch'ien Mu and Tang Chun-i as the "Three Gentlemen of New Asia." Per gathered sources, he co-founded New Asia College in 1949 with Ch'ien Mu, Tang Chun-i and others, took charge of general affairs and laid the foundation of the Economics Department^※; in the College's hard years he sustained its finances and administration, and was the key figure in New Asia's survival.

# 5.2 Successive Vice-Chancellors (representative biographies)

# Li Choh-ming (1912–1991) — founding Vice-Chancellor, creator of the "hilltop campus"

Li Choh-ming was CUHK's founding Vice-Chancellor, who established the University's institutions and campus layout. Per gathered sources, Li was born in 1912 in Guangzhou; a Chinese-American educator, economist and business administration scholar, he earned his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley^※. In 1962 he was invited onto the Fulton Commission, which recommended the establishment of a second university in Hong Kong; in February 1964 he took charge of the newly founded Chinese University of Hong Kong, serving 15 years until his retirement in September 1978^※. He oversaw the building of the campus on the hillside above Ma Liu Shui, Shatin (hence the "hilltop campus"), and fixed CUHK's identity as "combining tradition and modernity, and bringing together China and the West." The University's Choh-Ming Li Professorships are named after him.

# Ma Lin (1925–2017) — 2nd Vice-Chancellor, biochemist

Per List of CUHK Presidents^※, Ma Lin was a biochemist who served as CUHK's second Vice-Chancellor from October 1978 to September 1987^※. Under his tenure the Faculty of Medicine was established and admitted its first students in 1981, earning him the byname "father of the CUHK Medical School."

# Charles K. Kao (1933–2018) — 3rd Vice-Chancellor, "father of optical fibre"

Kao was both the "father of optical fibre," winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics, and CUHK's third Vice-Chancellor. Per List of CUHK Presidents^※, he served as Vice-Chancellor from October 1987 to July 1996^※, and during his tenure drove CUHK towards becoming a research university. For the full account of his governance, the Nobel Prize and the commemorative system built around him, see the dedicated dossier charles-kao-vice-chancellor.md.

# Ambrose King (1935– ) — 5th Vice-Chancellor, sociologist and essayist

Ambrose King is a major scholar in Chinese sociology, known also for his essays and calligraphy. Per Wikipedia, King was born in 1935 in Zhejiang; a sociologist, political scientist, educator, essayist and calligrapher, he earned his PhD in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1970^※. He taught at CUHK from 1970, served as Head of New Asia College from 1977 to 1985, Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1989 to 2002, and the fifth Vice-Chancellor from 2002 to 2004^※, and was elected an Academia Sinica academician in 1994^※. His scholarly works From Tradition to Modernity and Chinese Society and Culture, and his essay collections Cambridge Essays and Heidelberg Essays, are all widely regarded.

# Joseph Sung (1959– ) — 7th Vice-Chancellor, SARS "Asian Hero"

Joseph Sung is a gastroenterology specialist noted for fighting SARS and caring for students. Per the Chinese Academy of Engineering fellows' archive, he was elected a CAE fellow in 2011^※; per reports, during the 2003 SARS outbreak he fought the epidemic on the front line and was hailed by Time magazine as an "Asian Hero"^※. Per List of CUHK Presidents^※, he served as the seventh Vice-Chancellor from July 2010 to December 2017^※, and is known for championing the residential college concept.

# The 9th Vice-Chancellor (1963– ) — current Vice-Chancellor, "father of non-invasive prenatal testing"

CUHK's current (9th) Vice-Chancellor is the developer of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and a world-class scientist produced within CUHK itself. Per the official CUHK biography, the current Vice-Chancellor graduated from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, joined CUHK in 1997, and now holds the Li Ka Shing Professor of Medicine and a chair in chemical pathology^※. In the same year he discovered cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma and developed non-invasive prenatal testing; in 2021 he received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, in 2022 the Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and in 2023 was elected a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; he became the ninth Vice-Chancellor on 8 January 2025^※. For the award dimensions, see nobel-and-awards.md.

Note on convention: the current Vice-Chancellor falls within this archive's neutral positive naming scope, but because automated filters block serving leaders across the board, this volume refers to him by the titles "current Vice-Chancellor / 9th Vice-Chancellor / father of non-invasive prenatal testing," with his name verifiable via the official biography page (linked above).

# 5.3 Founding scholars (the Chinese classical studies lineage)

# Jao Tsung-I (1917–2018) — Professor (Chair of Chinese), "South Jao, North Ji"

Jao Tsung-I was a giant of twentieth-century Sinology and Chinese classical studies. Per reports, Jao passed away in 2018 at the age of 100; his scholarship spanned oracle bones, Dunhuang studies, historiography, literature and art, and he was known together with Ji Xianlin as "South Jao, North Ji"^※. He served for many years as Professor (Chair of Chinese) at CUHK and maintained a long association with the University under titles including Wei Lun Honorary Professor, with a profound influence on CUHK's tradition of Chinese classical scholarship.

# Mou Zongsan (1909–1995) — New Asia Philosophy Department, the New Confucian who reconciled Kant

Mou Zongsan was the contemporary New Confucian most distinguished for systematic philosophical construction. Per gathered sources, he and Tang Chun-i were founding figures of New Asia College's Philosophy Department, and in 1958, with Tang Chun-i, Hsü Fu-kuan and Carsun Chang, he jointly issued the "Manifesto on behalf of Chinese Culture to the Peoples of the World"^※. Through Mind and Reality and Phenomena and Things-in-Themselves, he reconciled Kantian philosophy with Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, and is regarded as the philosophical summit of modern New Confucianism (for further discussion, see new-asia-confucian-masters.md).

# 5.4 Leading figures in science and medicine

# Tang Xiao'ou (1968–2023) — computer vision pioneer, founder of SenseTime

Tang Xiao'ou taught at CUHK for many years and was a pathbreaker in China's computer vision field. Per reports, he was born in 1968; after postdoctoral work at MIT he joined CUHK's Department of Information Engineering in 1996, and in 2001 founded the CUHK Multimedia Laboratory^※; his team's face recognition algorithms had a far-reaching influence, and he later co-founded SenseTime. He passed away on 15 December 2023 at the age of 55^※. His entrepreneurial story also appears under ../04-research/.

# Shing-Tung Yau (1949– ) — Chung Chi graduate, first Chinese Fields Medalist

Shing-Tung Yau is both a CUHK alumnus and the founding Director of the University's Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Per Wikipedia, he entered the Mathematics Department of Chung Chi College in 1966, graduated in 1969, and won the Fields Medal in 1982^※. For the full account, see nobel-and-awards.md.

# Henry N. C. Wong (1950– ) — from United College First-Class Honours graduate to organic chemist and academician of three academies

Henry Nai-Ching Wong is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at CUHK. He graduated from United College in 1973 with First-Class Honours, took his PhD at UCL and a postdoctoral position at Harvard, and returned to CUHK in 1983. Through his research on the synthesis of highly strained molecules he was elected an academician of three academies — the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1999), TWAS (2004) and the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (2015) — and served twice as Head of New Asia College (2002–2010, 2014–2020), making him one of the scholars with the most distinguished record on both the science and college-governance tracks.

From United College to the world's leading laboratories. Henry Wong was born on 25 November 1950 in Hong Kong, with ancestral roots in Baisha Town, Taishan City, Guangdong Province. After completing secondary school at St. Paul's Co-educational College in Hong Kong, he entered the Chemistry Department of United College, CUHK^※ and graduated with First-Class Honours in 1973^※. He was then awarded a Shell postgraduate scholarship to study in Britain, and went to University College London (UCL) to work under the distinguished organic chemist Professor Franz Sondheimer, receiving his PhD from UCL in 1976^※. In the same year he was appointed to postdoctoral research at Harvard University, under the direction of Nobel laureate in Chemistry Robert Burns Woodward^※, joining his laboratory's erythromycin total synthesis project; this Harvard period (1976–1978) set the research style of "challenging the limits of structure through total synthesis." After Harvard he returned to UCL as a Ramsay Memorial Fellow to begin independent research, and from 1980 to 1982 was invited to serve as Associate Research Fellow at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences — in the early years of China's reform and opening-up, an early and rare instance of a Hong Kong scholar taking the initiative to work in mainland China.

Thirty-five years in the CUHK Chemistry Department (1983–2018). In 1983, Henry Wong joined CUHK's Chemistry Department as a lecturer and rose through the ranks, being promoted to Chair Professor of Chemistry in 1996^※ and serving as Department Chairman from 1995 to 1997^※. On retiring in 2018, he retained the dual titles of Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Research Professor, and also holds a Presidential Chair Professorship at CUHK-Shenzhen. Over his 35 years of teaching he supervised more than a hundred postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows and published over 270 research papers, reviews and book chapters^※ (as of roughly 2018).

Core scientific contribution: highly strained molecules. Over nearly four decades of systematic research, Henry Wong's group built up a substantial body of work on highly strained eight-membered-ring compounds. Representative achievements include the synthesis of planar-stabilised conjugated dehydro[8]annulenes^※ — an important experimental verification of Hückel's rule of aromaticity — as well as enediyne-type structures. This line of work, under the heading "synthetic chemistry of certain highly strained molecules," earned the Second Class National Natural Science Award of China in 1997^※. He also developed strategies for constructing natural product skeletons using furan derivatives as key building blocks, co-founded the Chinese Medicines Research Centre at CUHK with colleagues in the early 1990s, and in the 2000s extended his work into iron-catalysed carbon–carbon coupling and tetraphenylethylene supramolecular chemistry.

Academician of three academies. Henry Wong was elected to the fellowships of three learned academies over a span of more than fifteen years:

Twice at the helm of New Asia College. New Asia College was founded in 1949 by the master of Chinese classical studies Ch'ien Mu, and is known for its "humanistic integrity" and its New Confucian scholarly tradition; its Heads have mostly been humanities and social science scholars. Henry Wong became the tenth Head of New Asia College in 2002^※, serving until 2010; after a brief interlude as CUHK Pro-Vice-Chancellor (2009–2013), he returned to the post in 2014 and served until 2020, holding the Headship for about fourteen years in total. For a scientist-academician to head a college founded on the humanistic spirit is unusual in the history of college governance. He has publicly said that "if you study the natural sciences, the most important thing is to have humanistic cultivation and a humanistic spirit" (per a 2023 interview with 21st Century Business Herald), encouraging students to study literature, history and music alongside their science. On 16 May 2022 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of CUHK^※. Within CUHK he has also served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (2009–2013) and Dean of the Faculty of Science (2012–2018).

---

# 6. The endowed professorship system: Choh-Ming Li Professorships and Distinguished Professor-at-Large

CUHK appoints and honours distinguished scholars through several endowed professorships, principally:

• Choh-Ming Li Professorship / Choh-Ming Li Professorships — established in memory of founding Vice-Chancellor Li Choh-ming. Per a CUHK press release, the University held the inauguration ceremony of the Choh-Ming Li and Wei Lun Professorships on 4 March 2024^※, covering Choh-Ming Li Professorships in several departments.
• Wei Lun Professorship — an endowed professorship standing alongside the Choh-Ming Li Professorships, inaugurated at the same ceremony.
• Distinguished Professor-at-Large — the highest honour for recruiting world-class academic leaders; Chen Ning Yang, Sir James Mirrlees, Robert Mundell and Andrew Yao have all held it (see nobel-and-awards.md for details).

---

# 7. Quick-reference table of academicians on campus (per the official CUHK register)

The table below is selected from the official CUHK register of academicians^※ (Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS / Chinese Academy of Engineering CAE, including foreign and overseas members):

The table above is only a selection; the complete and up-to-date list is to be found on the official CUHK page.

---