PolyU Presents Lifetime Achievement Award to Two Distinguished Scholars at the Inaugural Ceremony for the Yuen Ren Chao Prize in Language Sciences

The awardees of the first Yuen Ren Chao Prize in Language Sciences, Prof. Peter Hagoort (6th from right) and Prof. William Shiyuan Wang (6th from left), were joined by Dr Lam Tai-fai, PolyU Council Chairman (5th from left); Ms Li Wen, iRead Foundation Founder and Executive Board Chair (5th from right); Dr Miranda Lou, PolyU EVP (3rd from left); Prof. Kwok-yin Wong, PolyU VP(EDU) (4th from right); Dr Laura Lo, PolyU AVP(IA) (3rd from right); Prof. Li Ping, Dean(FH) (4th from left); Prof. Ovid Tzeng, Academician of Academic Sinica (2nd from left), together with some of the Prize Selection Committee members including Prof. Cui Xiliang, Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Beijing Language and Culture University (2nd from right), Prof. Kang Kwong Kapathy Luke, President’s Chair Professor of Linguistics at Nanyang Technological University (1st from left); and Prof. Sun Chaofen, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University (1st from right).

The University is privileged to announce that Prof. Peter Hagoort, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and Prof. William Shiyuan Wang, Chair Professor of Language and Cognitive Sciences of PolyU, are bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Inaugural Ceremony for the Yuen Ren Chao Prize in Language Sciences (Chao Prize). The Presentation Ceremony was held on 10 May 2024.

The Chao Prize, initiated and hosted by the PolyU Faculty of Humanities, is named after the late Professor Yuen Ren Chao, who is widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese language studies. It is an international award that honours scholars and researchers who have made distinguished contributions to language sciences.

Addressing the Ceremony, Dr Lam Tai-fai, PolyU Council Chairman, said, “The Faculty of Humanities strives to follow the same interdisciplinary approach of Prof. Chao, by bringing together language, communication, history, culture and technology to advance understanding and foster innovation. PolyU fully supports this award, as it aligns with our motto ‘To learn and to apply, for the benefit of mankind’, by promoting excellence in language sciences research and its practical applications for the betterment of society. More broadly, this Prize represents our commitment to deepening cultural understanding for the benefit of the wider community.”

On behalf of the University, Prof. Li Ping, Dean of the PolyU Faculty of Humanities, expressed gratitude to the Chao family for giving PolyU permission to establish the Prize in Prof. Chao’s name, and also to the Patron of the Prize, Shenzhen iRead Foundation, for its generous donation to support the Prize. Through the Chao Prize, the Faculty is poised to bring together renowned scholars in the field of language sciences from around the world and become a hub in language sciences research.

While the iRead Foundation is dedicated to promoting children’s reading, Ms Li Wen, iRead Foundation Founder and Executive Board Chair, applauded the social value of the Chao Prize. She remarked, “Language serves as a vital tool for children to communicate, exchange ideas and acquire knowledge. By scientifically studying language, we can better understand how language development helps children’s mental and physical growth, as well as the patterns of language acquisition. This, in turn, enables us to provide children with better educational resources for reading and support them in cultivating good reading habits.”

Both Laureates are esteemed scholars of language sciences. Their research findings have brought major breakthroughs and far-reaching impacts to the field.

Prof. Peter Hagoort receives the Yuen Ren Chao Prize in Language Sciences (Lifetime Achievement Award) for his distinguished contributions to interdisciplinary studies in cognitive neuroscience and the understanding of human language processing in the brain. He applied neuroimaging techniques to investigate the language system and its impairments as in aphasia, dyslexia and autism. He is the Founding Director of the Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging and Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He is also an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Europaea, and the US National Academy of Sciences.

Prof. William Shiyuan Wang receives the Yuen Ren Chao Prize in Language Sciences (Lifetime Achievement Award) for his distinguished contributions to interdisciplinary studies in Chinese linguistics, evolutionary linguistics, and the cognitive neuroscience of language and ageing. His early interest in evolutionary theory, both biological and cultural, provided the basis of a theory of lexical diffusion. He is also Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley and an elected Academician of Academia Sinica.

For the biography of the two Laureates, please visit the website of the Yuen Ren Chao Prize in Language Sciences: https://polyu.hk/ayXSV