Press Release

HKBU to confer honorary doctoral degrees upon four distinguished persons

Wednesday, 27 Oct 2021

Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) will confer honorary doctoral degrees upon four distinguished persons for their outstanding professional achievements and remarkable contributions to society.

At the Conferment Ceremony to be held in November, Professor Steven Chu, Professor Ding Jian and Professor Alan B. Rickinson will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, and Dr David Ho Tzu-cho will be bestowed the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa. In addition, Dr Chow Yun-fat was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa earlier this year in August.

Professor Steven Chu (Doctor of Science, honoris causa)

Professor Steven Chu is an internationally-renowned physicist and he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for his contributions to laser cooling and atom trapping. He is currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University in the US.

Professor Chu was the first scientist to hold a cabinet position in the US, and he was the longest-serving Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2013, during which time he steered plans to invest in clean energy and combat the global climate crisis.

Professor Chu has published hundreds of papers in atomic and polymer physics, biophysics, biology, biomedicine, batteries and other clean energy technologies. His professional achievements and contributions have been widely acclaimed internationally, and he received more than 32 honorary doctoral degrees from universities around the world. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences; an academician of the Academia Sinica; and a foreign member of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Korean Academy of Sciences and Technology, and the National Academy of Sciences, Belarus.

Professor Ding Jian (Doctor of Science, honoris causa)

Professor Ding Jian is a renowned expert in anti-tumour pharmacology and one of the most influential academic leaders in the field of new drug research in mainland China. He is currently the Director of the Cancer Research Centre in the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Professor Ding is dedicated to the innovation of molecularly targeted therapies and translational research to gain new insights into personalised cancer therapies, which can help provide a molecular basis for patient stratification and the overcoming of drug resistance. He has also led the establishment of an anti-tumour drug screening and pharmacodynamic evaluation system that conforms to international standards, laying a foundation for the research and development of innovative anti-tumour drugs in mainland China.

Professor Ding's outstanding achievements have been widely recognised with numerous awards including the National Award for Excellence in Innovation in 2020, the C.C. Tan Life Science Achievement Award in 2016, the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016, and the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 2008, among others. He is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences.

Professor Alan B. Rickinson (Doctor of Science, honoris causa)

Professor Alan B. Rickinson is a leading researcher on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), glandular fever and several forms of cancer in humans. He is currently Emeritus Professor in Cancer Studies of the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham in the UK.

Professor Rickinson has made tremendous contributions to science in terms of elucidating the biology and immunology of EBV infections as well as the development of vaccines that fight EBV-positive malignancies. He directed the Institute for Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham from 1983 to 2001, during which time the Institute developed from a small non-clinical research department into a large research institute studying cancer genetics, viral oncology and tumour immunology.

Professor Rickinson's research team won the prestigious Translational Cancer Research Prize in 2015 for the development of a therapeutic vaccine that targets EBV-associated cancers. He was awarded the Marjory Stephenson Prize by the Microbiology Society in the UK in 2008, and he is a fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences, and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee (Review) of the Research Grants Council under the University Grants Committee.

Dr David Ho Tzu-cho (Doctor of Social Sciences, honoris causa)

Dr David Ho Tzu-cho is a respected philanthropist in his capacity as the Chairman of S.H. Ho Foundation Limited and a Vice Patron of The Community Chest of Hong Kong, and he has made profound contributions to the community in areas such as education, medical services and the care of the underprivileged.

Dr David Ho is also a distinguished entrepreneur and banker. He joined Hang Seng Bank in 1957 and contributed to the Bank's rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s to become Hong Kong's leading Chinese-owned bank. He assumed the chairmanship of his family business, Bethlehem Management Limited, in the 1980s, and since then he has led the company's ongoing business success.

The S. H. Ho Foundation, which was founded by Dr David Ho's late father, Dr Ho Sin-hang, has contributed significantly to the development of tertiary institutions in Hong Kong including HKBU. The Foundation, currently under Dr David Ho's leadership, has offered staunch support to HKBU, including for the construction of key infrastructure, research projects, and student development initiatives over the years. HKBU's Waterloo Road Campus was named after Dr Ho Sin-hang in recognition of the Foundation's enormous contributions to the University's development.

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