Profiles of AMA recipients

Prof. Albert Kong Kwok-hing is a Distinguished Professor at the Institute of Astronomy, National Tsing Hua University, and President of the Astronomical Society of Taiwan. He earned his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Oxford in 2000, a Master of Philosophy in Physics from The University of Hong Kong in 1997, and a Bachelor of Science and a Higher Diploma from PolyU in 1995 and 1993, respectively. Prof. Kong is internationally renowned for his multi-wavelength research on compact astrophysical objects such as black holes and neutron stars. Many of his discoveries have been world-firsts. He has authored over 265 refereed papers in leading journals such as Nature, Nature Astronomy, Physical Review Letters, and the Astrophysical Journal, accumulating over 12,600 citations and an h-index of 54 in the Astrophysics Data System. Recognised as a leader in high-energy astrophysics and gravitational wave astronomy, Prof. Kong discovered gamma-ray emission from a globular cluster using data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. His contributions have earned him prestigious awards, including the Academia Sinica Research Award for Junior Research Investigators in 2013, and the Outstanding Research Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2015. Prof. Kong is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and an elected Fellow of The Physical Society of Taiwan in 2018. 

Mr Tammy Tse Pak-kin is Senior Vice President and Head of the Information Technology Group at Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Limited. He earned his Master of Business Administration from The University of Western Sydney, Australia, in 2001 and a Higher Diploma in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computing from PolyU in 1981. Mr Tse is a prominent leader in Hong Kong's fintech industry, specialising in portfolio and programme management, merger and acquisition initiatives, and core banking system migration. With 25 years of experience in financial services, he has managed international mergers and acquisitions, global market and treasury operations, and regulatory mandates across Asia. His expertise spans securities, foreign exchange, money market activities, and global treasury products from a major US corporate and investment bank. Mr Tse is adept in project and programme management, leveraging Six Sigma methodologies and iterative processes to deliver and manage organisational change effectively. His contributions have been recognised with several awards, including the Fintech Talent Development Award (Bank) from Cyberport in 2022, and the Product Innovation Award from Infosys in 2023. In 2024, he assumed the role of Bank Coordinator for Fubon Bank HK, supervising and supporting four project teams in the PolyU x Hong Kong Monetary Authority Industry Project Masters Network Programme.

Prof. Zhang Kai is Vice President of The Guangdong University of Finance and Economics. He received a PhD from the Department of Applied Mathematics at PolyU in 2006. Currently, he is a Member of the Financial Business Expert Advisory Committee of the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court and the Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Macao Financial Technology Engineer Qualification Examination Proposition Committee. An expert in financial economics, financial derivatives, and financial technology, Prof. Zhang has authored over 50 academic papers and two monographs, and currently serves as Associate Editor for the international journal NACO. His research has been supported by numerous prestigious projects, drawing funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education, and the State Administration of Taxation. He has also led major projects for institutions such as the Bank of China, WeBank, and Guosen Securities. During his postdoctoral research in Australia, Prof. Zhang participated in two national research projects. On returning to China, he continued to lead and contribute to multiple national, provincial, and municipal research initiatives. Prof. Zhang is highly regarded for fostering fintech collaboration between education and industry. He founded the Shenzhen Audencia Financial School, a joint venture between Audencia Business School and Shenzhen University. He also established the WeBank Institute of Fintech, a collaboration between WeBank, Ping An Bank, and Shenzhen University. 

Prof. Hu Shenglong is a Professor at Hangzhou Dianzi University. He earned his doctoral degree from PolyU in 2013, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Tianjin University in 2010 and 2008, respectively. Prof. Hu is a leading expert in tensor computation, both in China and globally. He has authored over 60 papers in prestigious journals, including Mathematical Programming and Numerische Mathematik. His research has resolved significant open problems, such as those proposed by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Fellows Yousef Saad and Gene Golub. He has also addressed the linear convergence of the higher-order power method  for best rank-one approximations of tensors. Prof. Hu has been invited to speak at major conferences, including the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2019 and again in 2023. He has served as a plenary speaker at various academic meetings and has also organised mini-symposia at international conferences, including the SIAM Conference on Applied Linear Algebra. In collaboration with Prof. Liqun Qi, Prof. Hu has pioneered spectral hypergraph theory via tensors, establishing the symmetric spectra theorem of uniform hypergraphs and publishing the first monograph on this subject. His work has led to annual workshops and summer schools, which have promoted over twenty students to professorships. Prof. Hu's research has received over 1,300 Science Citation Index citations.