Prof. Sylvia Xiaohua CHEN, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Chair Professor of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Interim Director of the Mental Health Research Centre, and Director of the Yan Oi Tong Au Suet Ming Child Development Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has been elected as a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Prof. Chen is the only elected fellow in Hong Kong, and the only Chinese scholar elected in the field of Social & Economic Sciences this year.
TWAS is a global science academy based in Trieste, Italy, dedicated to promoting scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in developing countries. Elected TWAS fellows represent the world’s distinguished scientists in various disciplines, including some Nobel laureates. This year, a total of 74 new fellows from 28 countries and regions worldwide have been elected for 2025, and 10 are from Chinese institutions.
Prof. Chen is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society, a Registered Psychologist of the Hong Kong Psychological Society, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, the flagship journal of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, and General Editor of Cambridge University Press Culture and Psychology Series. Her research focuses on personality and social psychology, cross-cultural psychology, as well as the psychosocial and cultural aspects of mental health. She investigates the social psychology of bilingualism and biculturalism, globalization and multiculturalism, personality and social behavior in cultural contexts, as well as cultural diversity and mental health. Her research team established the framework of immigration-based acculturation and globalisation-based acculturation, and developed the theoretical construct of Global Orientations, which have been empirically extended to 35 countries and regions, significantly contributing to the study of social integration and post-COVID cooperation.
She is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Hong Kong Psychological Society, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE), United Kingdom. She served as President of the Asian Association of Social Psychology, and received various academic awards, including the Outstanding International Psychologist Award conferred by the Division of International Psychology (Division 52) of the American Psychological Association, and the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme awarded by the Research Grants Council (RGC).
| Research Units | Mental Health Research Centre |
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