A Happy New Year to you all. I hope you celebrated the start of 2023 safely and in good spirits. This fifth issue is the first PAIR newsletter released in 2023. With the gradual opening of the Hong Kong border and the resumption of face-to-face activities, various university developments at PolyU have gained momentum. The Academy has been busy planning for and developing a number of important initiatives, particularly the first PAIR Conference which will be held 8–11 May 2023 in hybrid mode at PolyU.
The four-day PAIR Conference, under the theme of “Research Excellence for Societal Impacts”, could be the first and largest event in 2023 dedicated to interdisciplinary research and development in Hong Kong higher education. It will provide a platform for professional exchange and closer collaboration among stakeholders from industry, academia, and governments around the world. The conference activities will include plenary, keynote, technical, poster, and panel discussion sessions and lab visits.
You are strongly encouraged to learn about and join the Conference, submit abstracts to the remaining slots of the poster sessions, and extend our invitation to your friends, colleagues and business partners. I am confident that the Conference will be an excellent opportunity for a meet-and-greet and productive exchange among the PolyU family, professional communities in Hong Kong, eminent speakers, important partners and interested members of the public. Please stay tuned for event updates, and visit the conference website at www.polyu.edu.hk/pairconference2023. The conference participation is free.
A major highlight in this issue is our “Feature Stories” section, which includes a narrative interview with Prof. David Cardwell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Strategy and Planning), The University of Cambridge, who described the future direction of university teaching and research. I hope the discourse will inspire education leaders and administrators to reflect on the existing practices in university development and management and gear up for the challenges ahead in education. Our coverage of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) and the Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE) describes PolyU’s endeavours to address sustainability challenges.
In early 2023, we invited the 2020 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Prof. Reinhard Genzel, to present a PAIR Distinguished Lecture. Prof. Genzel shared his 40-year journey in studying the mass distribution and discovering a supermassive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. We also welcomed digital health entrepreneur and father of modern surgical robotics, Dr Wang Yulun, who shared about the development of telemedicine and technology-enabled remote health care in a PAIR Public Seminar. Our “News & Events” section will give you more insights, and you are always welcome to view our lectures and seminars at www.youtube.com/@pairpolyu3024.
Last but not least, we hope our “Research Achievements” and “Knowledge Transfer” sections will spark your curiosity and spur innovation. These sections cover various novel inventions and scientific endeavours at PAIR, including an underwater adhesive, flood risk assessment, optical characterisation technology, structural deformation detection, and spectacle lenses for myopia control. Meanwhile, our “People” section covers some of the regional and international honours bestowed upon PAIR researchers for their scientific contributions.
Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy reading Issue 5 of the PAIR newsletter. I look forward to meeting you, both in person and online, at the forthcoming PAIR Conference at PolyU.
Prof. CHEN Qingyan
Director of PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research
