CUHK held its 80th Congregation for the Conferment of Degrees on 26 May. Prof. Randy W. Schekman and Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz, both of whom are Nobel Laureates, had honorary doctorates conferred on them at the Congregation.

Prof. Schekman is a renowned cell biologist. In 2013, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking. Prof. Schekman is now an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkeley. He is also Chairman of the Selection Committee for Hong Kong’s Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and is a collaborator with CUHK’s Area of Excellence Centre for Organelle Biogenesis and Function.

Prof. Stiglitz is an internationally-acclaimed economist. He was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and a member of the cabinet in the Clinton Administration in the US. In 1997, Prof. Stiglitz was appointed Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information.

After the ceremony, each of the professors presented a distinguished lecture on campus and shared their insights into their fields of research with a total of 700 audience members.

Videos of the ceremony and the two lectures are now available on CUTV for public view.

Congregation video: http://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/cutv/detail/722?lang=en
Lecture by Prof. Schekman on “How Cells Package and Traffic Proteins for Export”: http://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/cutv/detail/724?lang=en
Lecture by Prof. Stiglitz on "Global Inequality": http://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/cutv/detail/725?lang=en

Last week, CUHK Dragon Boat Club sent its strong teams to participate in a number of Dragon Boat competitions, including the Hong Kong Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships and Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races. With their well-trained paddling skills and a powerful team spirit, CUHK teams were successful in snatching top prizes, including the champion and first runner up of Sun Life University Cup at the Hong Kong Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships, and the first runner up of the Post Secondary Schools Open Invitational Race and Mixed Invitational Race at the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races.

Launched in February last year, the CUHK Dragon Boat Club was initiated by two students, Kelvin Lee and Yip Wai-fung, who used to be members of University rowing teams. To attract more members, the Club organized Dragon Boat Experience Day to give the students a really enjoyable taste of paddling a dragon boat. Most members of the Club had zero experience of dragon boat racing before joining. However, with great perseverance and intense training by dragon boat professionals, all members have turned into skillful paddlers. In order to gain experience, the Club has been participating in various competitions in Hong Kong and the Mainland China.

Their hard effort has paid off in less than two years. In the Samsung 59th Festival of Sport on 10 April, the CUHK team won two championships and the first runner up. In the Hong Kong Inter-University Dragon Boat Championships held on 22 April, CUHK came first runner up, ahead of the long-established team from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

CUHK Dragon Boat Club welcomes more CUHK students to join and expand the team. Trainings for new members will be arranged during the summer holiday. Simply go to their Facebook page to learn more.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CUHK.DBC/

The 20th Master of Architecture Graduation Show, organized by the School of Architecture of CUHK has come to the second phase. The annual graduation show offers an open platform for the students to demonstrate the convergence of their professional knowledge and their innovative architectural ideas.

The show comprises 53 individual thesis projects by the school graduates. All the exhibited graphics and models are intended not just to arouse public interest in creative architectural design, but also to reflect on the pressing global issues of society, such as climate change, environment conservation and web globalization. One of the projects chooses Tolo Harbour as its testing site and focuses on exploring a proactive way of raising the shoreline against the open water. It also ensures the ability of the city to confront rising sea levels and massive tides in the foreseeable future. Another project explores how inhabitants of South Yuen Long District can work and live with water sources in a productive, playful and spiritual sense. This suggests a new typology of new town development in suburban areas in conjunction with the forces of nature.

In his remarks for the graduates, Prof. Nelson Chen, Director of the School of Architecture expressed his expectation that the graduates will “enter the profession with humility and a commitment to learn even more, while being informed by the core competency and critical thinking gained during your education at CUHK so that you will eventually design buildings and cities with respect for the environment and for human needs.” The first phase of the exhibition started on 3 June, and concluded on 9 June at the Midtown Soundwill Plaza in Causeway Bay. Interested parties can visit the second phase at CUHK from 13 June onwards.

Phase 2 Exhibition:

Date: 13 June - 10 July 2016
Time: 9:00 am - 8:00 pm (Monday - Saturday)
Address: Exhibition Zones, 1/F, AIT Building, School of Architecture, CUHK