Bulletin Number Four 1985

Professor Thomas C.W. M a k Professor S. W. Tam Professor Thomas Chung Wai Mak Professor o f Chemistry Professor Thomas Chung Wai Mak received his p ri mary, secondary and matriculation education in 1948- 1957 at Wah Yan College, Hong Kong. He then attended The University o f British Columbia (UBC )， where he majored in Chemistry and Physics and earned his First Class Honours BSc degree in 1960. In the summer o f 1959, he was empolyed as a Research Technician at Maitland Works, Dupont o f Canada. A fter spending the following summer doing research at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa, he pursued graduate studies at UBC on aNRC Scholar ship and obtained his PhD degree in Chemistry in 1963. Supported by the award o f aNational Aeronautics and Space Administration Fellowship, he spent the next two years as a Research Associate in the Department o f Crystallography at the University o f Pittsburgh, and subsequently obtained tenure at the University o f Western Ontario as Assistant Professor o f Chemistry. Professor Mak joined The Chinese University in 1969 as Lecturer in Chemistry at New Asia College, and was promoted Senior Lecturer in 1971 ， Reader in 1978 ， and Professor in 1982. He has been Chair man o f the Department since 1983, and was recently elected Dean o f the Science Faculty. Apart from a sabbatical year o f research in 1978-1979 as Visiting Associate Professor at UBC, Professor Mak has served the University w ithout interruption since 1969. Over the years he has taught courses in General Chemistry, Chemical Bonding, Inorganic Chemistry, and X-Ray Crystallography. He is fervently devoted to research in the field o f structural chemistry, w ith particular interest in (i) the synthesis and structural characterization o f clathrate inclusion compounds, salt hydrates, and hydrogen- bonded molecular adducts; (ii) metal coordination by cyclic polyenes, polycyclic tertiary amines, (arylthio)- acetic acids, penicillamines, pseudohalides, and macrocyclic ligands; and (iii) structure elucidation o f organic compounds and natural products. He has recently developed long-term research projects in collaboration w ith academic chemists in Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Egypt, Israel, Malaysia, and China (Zhongshan University, Xiamen University, Hangzhou University, and Institute o f Physics, Academia Sinica (Beijing). His publications include Problems in Inorganic and Structural Chem istry (co-authored w ith Drs. Kwan-Yu Hui, Oi-Wah Lau and Wai-Kee L i) and over 150 research articles in international chemical journals. Professor S.W. Tam Professor o f Chemistry Professor S.W. Tam was matriculated in Hong Kong in 1955 w ith the award o f the King Edward V II Scholarship to read Science at the University o f Hong Kong, where he obtained his BSc and MSc degrees. He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship in 1961 to do research in organic chemistry at the University o f Nottingham, where he obtained his PhD degree in 1964. A fter a year o f postdoctoral work at the Institut fur Organische Chemie, University o f Basel in Switzerland, Professor Tam was appointed to a Lectureship in organic chemistry in 1965 at The Chinese University o f Hong Kong. He was subse quently promoted to the ranks o f Senior Lectureship (1970 )， Readership (1978) and Professorship (1982). Throughout his tenure o f appointment he received several external awards, such as the Sino-British Trust Fellowship ， NIH Fellowship ， lUC Senior Fellowship ， and CICHE Exchange Visitorship which enabled him to carry out research at the Masachusetts Institute o f Technology and the University o f Cambridge several times. Since 1969 ， Professor Tam has been very much involved in University planning and administration. Prior to the restructuring o f The Chinese University, he was appointed to the Office o f the President o f Chung Chi College in 1976. Throughout his academic career he held several concurrent administrative appointments which include the Dean o f the Science Faculty o f Chung Chi College (1969-1972 )， the Presi­ RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 17