Newsletter No. 136

University Members Honoured • RCSI Honours Vice-Chancellor Prof. Arthur K.C. Li, vice-chancellor of the University, was awarded an honorary fellowship on 6th November by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the highest honour the college can bestow and which is reserved 'for those special and talented few who make significant contributions to the progress of medicine and the betterment of humanity'. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) was founded in 1784 by Royal Charter to train surgeons. There are six principal teaching hospitals in Dublin which are affiliated with RCSI. The medical education/teaching programmes offered by RCSI have attained the highest level of international excellence. It has associated postgraduate components pre-eminent in surgery, medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, laboratory medicine, and psychiatry. • Prof. Ambrose King Receives Honorary Doctorate Pro-vice-chancellor Prof. Ambrose King was conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on 13 th November. In his citation, Prof. King was lauded as belonging to 'that unique category of Chinese scholars whose work is well-known by non-China specialists in the social sciences' and his writings were described to have left an 'indelible mark on the minds of budding sociologists and political scientists in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland', an influence 'very few scholars of the social sciences in the latter half of the twentieth century have...on students.' Mar ke t i ng Expert Hands a Few Tips to Social Science Faculty From left: Prof. Twila Tardif, Prof. Charles Steilen, Prof. Kenneth Chau, and Prof. Chen Hsuan Chih T he Faculty of Social Science he ld a Strategic P l ann i ng Workshop on 7th November 1998. Over 50 teaching staff from the nine departments of the faculty spent the Saturday morning examining new demands and expectations and rethinking strategies at the workshop designed and conducted by Prof. Charles Steilen, former professor at the Un i ve r s i t y 's Department of Marketing. In his introductory remark, Prof. Kenneth Chau, dean of social science, stressed the importance of developing a strategic fit among the missions of the departments and the faculty as a who l e, as we l l as between internal and external circumstances. In planning for future development and dealing w i t h c h a n g es and complexities ahead, he encou r aged f a c u l ty members to think and act strategically and in a holistic way. Prof. Steilen presented a strategic planning model in a marketing approach to the participants. He worked w i th the participants to identify their market sectors, conduct analyses for these sectors, devise objectives, and formulate marketing strategies. The participants then applied the model to one of the market sectors: brilliant secondary school students. CUHK Organizes Xiangshan Scientifi c Symposium T he 107th X i a n g s h an S c i e n t i f ic Sympo s i um on Telescience and Robotics was held on CUHK campus on 12th and 13th November 1998. Over 40 top scientists and researchers in the field from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, the US, Russia, Korea, and Germany participated in the two-day forum to discuss frontier research and state-of-the-art development in robotics, a u t oma t i o n, i n f o r ma t i on and space technology, and to promote international collaboration in these areas. Among the participants were university presidents, l e a d i ng s c i en t i s ts and d i r e c t o rs o f international programmes, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences. The s ympos i um was c o o r g a n i z e d w i t h t he X i a n g s h a n S c i e n c e Conferences, wh i ch was established in 1992 under the auspices of the State Science and Technology Commission and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to promote free academic exchange and discussion, foster interdisciplinary cooperation and integrated study in various areas o f excellence, and explore new frontiers in science. It was the first time that such a high-level scientific symposium had been held in Hong Kong. Officiating at the opening ceremony held on 12th November in the Ho Sin Hang Engineering Building was Mr. Kwong Ki-chi, Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting of the HKSAR Government. Congratulatory messages were delivered by Prof. Song Jian, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences and Prof. Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Arthur K.C. Li, vice-chancellor of the University, and Prof. Xu Yangsheng, executive chairman of the symposium and chair of the University's Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, also gave welcoming speeches. Support for Research T wo more health-related research projects of the University have recently attracted funding support: • A Care Protocol to Reduce Hospital Readmissions of Elderly Residential Care Home Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (HK$585,280) Sponsor. Health Services Research Fund Investigators'. Prof. Diana Lee Tze-fan, Prof. Ann E. Mackenzie, and Prof. Iris Lee Fung-kam • Fat to Fit: Weight Loss Programme for Obese Children in Hong Kong (HK$359,480) Sponsor: Health Care and Promotion Fund Investigators'. Mr. Lau Wing-chung, Prof. Wong Wing-kin, Prof. Hui Sai-chuen Mainland Nursing S t u d e n t s V i s i t CUHK A group of 18 Master of Nursing students from Xian Medical University and Chiang Mai visited the Department of Nursing from 2nd to 5th November While in Hong Kong they took part in seminars with Master of Nursing students of the University and exchanged ideas with nurse managers from a variety of healthcare settings in Hong Kong.