Donor
Able Engineering Company Limited
Able Engineering Company Limited (Able Engineering), founded in 1976, is a subsidiary of Able Engineering Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2017. Its main scopes of business include local building construction projects, as well as related repair and maintenance works, serving both the public and private sectors.
Able Engineering established an Endowed Professorship and named it after Professor Michael Anson, the inaugural dean of the predecessor of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), as a tribute to his enormous contributions to the Faculty. Professor Anson was first appointed the Head of Department of Civil and Structural Engineering in 1988 and has since been committed to the development of FCE for over 30 years. He fostered FCE’s leading role in academic studies related to construction and environment and boosted the morale of various teams working in the Faculty.
Instrumental to the instilment of a research culture within FCE early on, Professor Anson spearheaded the Faculty’s research development by encouraging faculty members to pursue research excellence as early as in the 1980s when submitting research proposals and journal papers had not yet been a norm at the then Hong Kong Polytechnic. Professor Anson continues his devotion to research education even after his retirement in 2003 and is currently the Emeritus Professor of FCE. Through this Endowed Professorship, Able Engineering believes Professor Anson’s inspirational and pioneering spirit can continue to influence every generation of academia, for them to incessantly build and excel upon the strong foundations laid down by Professor Anson.
Appointee
Ir Professor C. S. Poon
Currently the Chair Professor of Sustainable Construction Materials and Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ir Professor C.S. Poon earned his PhD from the Civil Engineering Department of Imperial College, London. He went on to spend two years in Oxford University’s Department of Materials Science as a Post-doctoral Fellow, specialising in cement and concrete research. Before joining Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1992, Professor Poon also served in the Hong Kong Government briefly.
Professor Poon’s profound interest in teaching and researching civil engineering materials, eco-friendly construction materials and waste management has made him a pioneer in researches that valorise and recycle different wastes into useful construction materials, and one of the most published leading scholars in this discipline, achieving a Google Scholar H-index over 100. According to the metrics compiled by Stanford University, Professor Poon is ranked among the top 2% of the world’s most cited scientists in the field of Building and Construction. In 2017, his appointment as a Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor and the bestowment of State Technological Innovation Award (2nd Class) upon him were the icing on the cake. Concurrently a Fellow of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and the Hong Kong Concrete Institute, and a Justice of Peace since 2013, Professor Poon has been actively serving in various professional and government bodies and committees.
