We are shocked and deeply saddened by the untimely passing of our long-term colleague Professor Xiaoou Tang (also known as Sean Tang), who passed away in Shanghai on the night of December 15, 2023.

Professor Xiaoou Tang completed his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 and he joined the Department of Information Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1998. He founded the CUHK Multimedia Laboratory in 2001.   Professor Tang made many important contributions to research on computer vision, pattern recognition and video information processing and he was a pioneer in the field of Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence. His scientific accomplishments were recognized by his election to Fellow of IEEE in 2009 and by the award of Outstanding Fellow of the Faculty of Engineering of CUHK in 2013. Professor Tang co-founded Sensetime in 2014, which was one of the first AI unicorn companies from CUHK.  

The Interim Dean of Engineering, Professor H.K. Tsang said “We grieve the passing of a dear colleague and friend, who was a scholar of distinction.  We shall sorely miss for his sharp mind, original perspectives and thinking, and his devotion to science and scholarly research. He was a true scholar and educator, nurturing many talented students who later became very successful in their own careers.  Professor Tang worked many long hours and very devoted to research.  Professor Tang and I served the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Engineering during 2010-2016 and I saw firsthand the lasting impacts he made in the way we recruited the best PhD students for the Faculty of Engineering. We are sure that his many former and highly talented PhD students will continue to bring advances to the field and applications of Artificial Intelligence.   I would like to express my deepest personal condolence to Professor Tang’s family and share their loss.”