The Lau Oi-Wah Memorial Science Lecture Series was established in 2005, in recognition of Professor Lau Oi-Wah’s contribution to Science Education at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and to Hong Kong in general. Professor Lau obtained her B.Sc. degree in 1965 from The University of Hong Kong (HKU). She joined Chung Chi College of CUHK as an Assistant Lecturer in 1968, during which she was still working on her Ph.D. thesis. After the completion of her doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry in 1970 at HKU, she became a Lecturer at CUHK. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1982 and Reader in 1993. She was awarded a Leverhulme Foundation Fellowship in 1971 by Imperial College, London and an Honorary Research Fellowship in 1978 by the University of Birmingham. Professor Lau became a Chartered Chemist and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, U.K., in 1981. She was elected to the Deanship of the Science Faculty for three successive terms, from 1994 to her retirement in 2003.
Professor Lau was a dedicated teacher and a caring research advisor who always put her students’ learning and benefit first. During her academic career, she supervised seven Ph.D. students and about 30 M.Phil. students. To many of us who knew her well, she was a passionate educator with a warm personality. During her Deanship, she had successfully pushed for the establishment of many interdisciplinary teaching and research programmes, which remains a direction for curricula developments of the Faculty of Science for the years to come. In addition to university teaching, Professor Lau had also initiated an effort to promote science education in local secondary schools.
After the passing of Professor Lau, her friends and students have established a memorial fund to support the Lau Oi-Wah Memorial Science Lecture Series in order to recognize Professor Lau’s contribution to science education in Hong Kong and to commemorate her commitment to education. The Lecture Series, now running for the 14th year, continues to inspire young people to pursue further studies and careers in Science. Professor Lau’s legacy has indeed lived on through the gift of learning as we all wish.
