Dear Colleagues and Students,

The University Council (UC) agreed at its 3^rd meeting of academic year 2021/2022 and 4^th meeting of academic year 2022/2023 to the conferment of honorary degrees proposed by the UC members and the Senate. It was agreed to confer Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa on Professor Cai Fang, Doctor of Science honoris causa on Professor Leong Kam Weng, Doctor of Science honoris causa on Professor Ching-Ping Wong, Doctor of Science honoris causa on Professor Franco Maloberti, Doctor of Humanities honoris causa on Professor William Shiyuan Wang. In accordance with Item 2 of Article 13 and Sub-item 13) of Item 1 of Article 18 of the Charter of the University of Macau, the UC recommended to the Chancellor of the University candidates for the award of honorary degrees. The Chancellor approved, respectively on 27 May 2022 and 14 July 2023, the above proposal for the conferment of honorary degrees.

To recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the five honorary degree recipients in their areas, the University will hold a ceremony for the conferment of honorary degrees on 2 December 2023(Saturday).

Yours sincerely,

Rico Lam
Secretary, Honorary Degrees and Titles Committee

 

Introduction to the Five Honorary Degree Recipients

1.　Professor Cai Fang

Introduction

Professor Cai Fang graduated from Remin University of China and the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) with a doctorate in economics. He is currently a member of the CASS Academic Committee, a chief expert of the CASS China Top Think Tank and a member of the Monetary Policy Commission of the People’s Bank of China. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th National People’s Congress (NPC), a Vice Chairperson of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the 13^th NPC, and a member of the 11^th and 12^th Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. He was the director of its Institute of Population and Labour Economics as well as the Vice Chairman of the China Population Association, the Vice President of CASS and President of its China-Africa Institute. He has been a consultant for international organizations including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Labour Organization.

Professor Cai has published more than 200 research articles and over 30 monographs in Chinese and English. His main research areas include rural economic theory and policy, labour economics, population economics, China’s economic reform, economic growth, income distribution and poverty. He is the author of Chinese Economy, The Development and Transformation of China’s Labour Market, and Beyond Demographic Dividend, and the editor of the Report on China’s Population and Labour series. He was recognised as one of the “100 Economists Who Influenced the Economic Development of China in the Past 60 Years” and was the winner of the Second Zhang Peigang Development Economics Outstanding Achievement Award, the First Soft Science of China Prize, the Fourth Hundred People of China Development Prize, as well as the Chinese Population Award and the Sun Yefang Economic Science Award in 2011.

Reasons for nomination

Professor Cai Fang is a graduate of Remin University of China and earned his PhD degree in Economics from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He joined CASS in 1985, and was appointed as a Research Fellow in 1993 and a member of the CASS Academic Committee in 2011. Professor Cai Fang is a delegate to the 17th and 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a member of the Standing Committee of the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th National People’s Congresses (NPC), a member of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the 11^th and the 12^th NPC, and a Vice Chairperson of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the 13^th NPC. He is currently a chief expert of the China Top Think Tank, a member of the Academic Committee, and a research fellow in CASS, a member of the Monetary Policy Commission of the People’s Bank of China and a doctoral supervisor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Professor Cai Fang’s research interests include labour economics, population economics, China’s economic reform, economic growth, income distribution, poverty, as well as major theories and policies of the three issues relating to agriculture, rural areas and the wellbeing of farmers. Starting from agricultural economics, he further studies economic development strategies and reform strategies, regional economic growth, population mobility, labour and employment issues. He has long been committed to the exploration of poverty alleviation in China and has attempted to construct a logically consistent system of Chinese development economics different from the economic methodology of the Western neoclassical tradition. Professor Cai Fang specialises in the study of population economics and has made significant contributions to the study of population economics in China. His in-depth research and unique insights into the relationship between China’s demographic dividend and economic development is of great theoretical and practical significance.

Professor Cai Fang has published more than 200 papers and more than 30 monographs in both English and Chinese, among which the Beyond Demographic Dividend had won the 3rd Chinese Government Award for Publishing — Book Award, and Demystifying the Economic Growth in Transition China was rated among the 6th Outstanding Theoretical Books for the Public and won the 6th Chinese Excellent Publications Award — Book Award. He was awarded the titles of “Chinese Doctoral Degree Recipient with Outstanding Contribution”, “National Outstanding Mid-Aged Experts”, and “100 Economists Who Influenced the Economic Development of China in the Past 60 Years”. He has also been awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award for Overseas Students, the Zhang Peigang Development Economics Outstanding Achievement Award, the Hundred People of China Development Prize, the Chinese Population Award, the China Rural Development Research Award, the Sun Yefang Economic Science Award, and the China Economic Theory Innovation Award.

 

2.　Professor Leong Kam Weng

Introduction

Professor Leong Kam Weng is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors and a Member of the US National Academy of Medicine. He is currently a professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Systems Biology at Columbia University, in the United States. Professor Leong was born in Macao and obtained his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He previously taught at Duke University and Johns Hopkins University before joining Columbia University in September 2014. Professor Leong has long been engaged in biomedical materials research. His focus has been on the structural design and engineering of nanomedical materials for clinical application, in an effort to address needs in gene therapy, protein therapy, immunotherapy and other treatments. In addition to these, he has also achieved many advances in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and made significant progress in nanotechnology-mediated cellular reprogramming. For his outstanding academic accomplishments, Professor Leong was named James B. Duke Professor at Duke University and Samuel Y. Sheng Professor at Columbia University, which is an honorary title given by the engineering school of Columbia University to professors with significant contributions to human health by using engineering technology in studying the causes of morbidity.

His contributions to biomaterials science and engineering are focused on drug delivery, gene delivery and cell topography interactions. He has centred his research on the development of innovative biomaterials for in-vivo gene editing, drug and gene delivery, and the application of regenerative medicine. Professor Leong’s unique academic background and solid working foundation in materials engineering and biomedicine have allowed him to play a pioneering role in these interdisciplinary fields and generate pathbreaking ideas. Specifically, he used polymer biomaterials to develop gene-editing tools, chemotherapeutants and cells for cancer treatments, immunotherapy and the treatment of inflammatory diseases. He has also applied the principles of tissue engineering and stem cell engineering to construct human tissue chips for disease modelling and drug screening.

In the field of cancer treatment, Professor Leong has done remarkable work in developing Gliadel, a biodegradable polyanhydride that delivers the drug “Carmustine” directly into the brain after surgical removal of the tumour. Gliadel has been used to treat thousands of brain tumour patients around the world since 1996. With regard to non-viral gene therapy, he demonstrated in animal models the feasibility of using DNA nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic genes (including hemophilia and insulin genes) through oral administration. In addition, he developed nanomanufacturing technologies to scale up the production of bionic and DNA nanoparticles, which are the key barrier to the transfer of nanomedicine.

In the area of regenerative medicine, Professor Leong was among the first to use DNA nanoparticles to convert adult cells into other cell types, increasing the likelihood of treating neurodegenerative diseases with non-viral cellular reprogramming. Recently, he has developed a nanoparticle-based gene editing technology that can remove harmful genes and correct hereditary diseases in the body. This effort will make an impact on the field of precision medicine and R&D of human tissue chips for new drug development.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the engineering technologies of drug delivery and non-viral gene delivery vehicles, Professor Leong Kam Weng was elected a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors in 2013, and a Member of the US National Academy of Medicine in 2020. To date, Professor Leong has published more than 450 papers in journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Materials, Nature Methods, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Science Advances and Biomaterials. He has been cited more than 67,000 times, with an H-index of 133, and was an ESI Highly Cited Researcher in 2018. He also holds 60 granted patents and 14 published ones. He was ranked 80^th in the list of the world’s top 100 materials scientists by Thomson Reuters in March 2011. Since 2014, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials, the top journal in the field. Under his leadership, the impact of the journal has continued to grow. With his high academic attainments in biomaterials and biomedical engineering, Professor Leong Kam Weng enjoys high reputation and influence in the academic circles at home and abroad.

Reasons for nomination

Professor Leong Kam Weng has made pathbreaking contributions to fields such as polymeric biomaterials, cellular reprogramming, gene editing, and drug and gene delivery. He enjoys high reputation and influence in the academic circles at home and abroad. His research, guidance and services have advanced these interdisciplinary fields, while his accomplishments in basic science are of great benefit to society. He has been one of the pioneers in biomaterials for many years and will have more to offer in the future.

Over the past three decades, Professor Leong has been unremittingly supporting the nurturing of talent and research in biomaterials and biomedical engineering in China. He has long been engaged in the provision of biomedical engineering education in China. As early as in 1990, on the invitation of Academician Binglin He of Nankai University, he went back to China to teach a course on Polymer Biomaterials at the Institute of Polymer Chemistry. Since then, he has been invited to give more than 20 talks at international and domestic conferences in China, and delivered more than 40 seminars there, three of which were held at the University of Macau (UM). He became a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) of UM in 2019. In addition, Professor Leong has a long-standing commitment to the development of high-calibre biomedical engineering talent in China. He has trained more than 10 PhD students and more than 30 postdoctoral students from China, and supervised more than 10 visiting scholars, six of whom have become renowned professors and academic leaders in biomedical materials research in China. He has been invited to be an Honorary Professor at several universities and a member of International Advisory Panels. He also serves as the Honorary Director of Guangdong Saliai Stem Cell Research Institute, offering ideas for the development of biomedical engineering in China. Professor Leong has established extensive and long-standing partnerships with universities and research institutions in China. He was appointed as Chair Professor of the Ministry of Education Changjiang Scholars Programme at Sun Yat-sen University and chaired a Guangdong Province Introduced Innovative and Entrepreneurial Team. Furthermore, he collaborates and carries out in depth exchanges of ideas with research groups of more than ten universities and research centres, in an effort to promote the advancement of biomaterials and biomedical engineering in China. Professor Leong visited the ICMS on many occasions to give lectures and advise on academic research. He also welcomed professors from the ICMS to train and study in his laboratory in the United States. Chinese medical biomaterials are one of the main research interests of the ICMS and State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine of UM. Research papers in this area account for a large proportion of the high-impact articles published by the ICMS. This achievement is inseparable from Professor Leong’s mentoring and support.

 

3.　Professor Ching-Ping Wong

Introduction

Professor Ching-Ping Wong is a world-renowned scholar in the field of electronic engineering and is hailed as the Father of Modern Semiconductor Packaging, coming second only to the Nobel laureate Professor Sir Charles Kuen Kao. He is currently Regents’ Professor and the Charles Smithgall Institute Endowed Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and has been granted the title of Emeritus Professor by the Department of Electronic Engineering of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Professor Wong received his PhD degree from the Pennsylvania State University, and was later awarded a postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of the Nobel laureate Professor Henry Taube at Stanford University. Prior to joining Georgia Institute of Technology, he worked with AT&T Bell Laboratories for many years and became an AT&T Bell Laboratory Fellow in 1992. In 2000, he was elected a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Upon returning to China in 2010, Professor Wong served as Dean of Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2011, he was appointed the team leader of the Advanced Electronic Packaging Materials Innovation Team of Guangdong Province as well as chief scientist in electronic packaging materials at the Center of Advanced Material Research (CAMR) of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2013, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and in 2015 a Founding Member of Hong Kong Academy of Science.

CAMR was founded in 2006 and has since then dedicated itself to developing advanced materials for both fundamental research and industrial application. Over the past decade, CAMR has actively participated in or undertaken more than 100 scientific and industrial programmes of the nation, published nearly 450 papers in SCI journals and obtained 380 patents. The centre has also become a member of the National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Advanced Electronic Packaging Materials.

With a view to achieving long-term development, the centre leverages the excellent environment provided by the electronic information industry in Guangdong province and Shenzhen. It is focused on the development of key materials for high density 3D wafers and system-in package technologies.

Materials science is an important part of a country’s S&T planning, and is widely considered as one of the most critical technologies for the economic and social development of mankind. The theories involved in materials science include solid-state physics, materials chemistry, applied physics and chemistry, as well as various engineering disciplines. When combined with electronic engineering, it takes the shape of electronic materials.

Professor Wong’s research interests include polymeric electronic materials, electronic, photonic and micro-electromechanical system packaging and interconnect and interfacial adhesions, as well as nano-functional material syntheses and characterisations. He has made remarkable advances in areas related to conductivity fatigue in lead-free conductive adhesives, synthesis and properties of nanocomposites and the development of low cost flip chips.　Professor Wong has made significant contributions to the industry by pioneering new materials, which fundamentally changed the semiconductor packaging technology. He has published over 1,000 technical papers, authored and edited 12 books, and holds over 65 US patents.

Professor Wong has received numerous international awards including:

• AT&T Bell Labs Fellow Award (1992)
• IEEE CPMT Society Outstanding Sustained Technical Contributions Award (1995)
• Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Faculty Best Research Paper Award (1999)
• IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000)
• IEEE EAB Education Award (2001)
• IEEE CPMT Society Exceptional Technical Contributions Award (2002)
• Georgia Tech Class 1934 Distinguished Professor Award (2004)
• IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Field Award (2006)
• Sigma Xi’s Monie Ferst Award (2007)
• Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ TEEM Award (2008)
• IEEE CPMT David Feldman Outstanding Contribution Award (2009)
• International Dresden Barkhausen Award (Germany) (2012)

Reasons for nomination

Contributions to the nation and the development of science and technology:
For many years, Professor Ching-Ping Wong has split his time between China and the United States advancing the electronic packaging technologies in China. His efforts in research and higher education have contributed greatly to the academic and industrial development and international collaboration of China.

He strives to nurture talents for the country and assists in establishing international collaboration with the Packaging Research Centre in the United States. For the purpose of building a team of electronic packaging talents for the country, he proactively provides training and mentorship to Chinese students studying overseas and arranging for young teachers and corporate engineers to visit and learn at the Packaging Research Centre in Georgia Institute of Technology.

During his tenure as Dean of Engineering at CUHK, he was active in rolling out reforms and initiatives in nurturing high-calibre researchers. While serving at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he was leading the Advanced Electronic Packaging Materials Innovation Team of Guangdong Province, which he set up himself. The aim is to improve the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the country’s integrated circuit industry, and to build an exemplary platform of international standard for R&D and transfer of electronic packaging materials, in order to reduce our country’s reliance on imports of high-end electronic materials and high-performing devices.

Professor Wong was one of the firsts to develop plastic packaging technologies. His innovative research on the use of silicone resin in the encapsulation of gated diode crosspoint (GDX) switch devices proves to be as effective as using polymeric materials for the encapsulation, and significantly improves packaging reliability. This new technology, having overcome heavy weight, technical complexity and high cost issues in traditional ceramic packaging, has been widely embraced by companies such as Intel and IBM and has thus far accounted for 95% of the packaging technologies in the global IC packaging market. He has also resolved a long-standing difficulty in electronic packaging, which is the unstable resistance at the interface between the conductive adhesive and the device. The technology is used in conductive adhesive products from Henkel and other companies. Professor Wong was the first in the industry to develop a solvent-free, high Tg no-flow underfill, which simplifies the flip chip packaging process and improves device quality and reliability. Such material has long been adopted by Hitachi and other companies.

Relationship with and contributions to Macao:
During his tenure as Dean of Engineering at CUHK, Professor Wong received funding from Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation to establish the Stanley Ho Big Data Decision Analytics Research Centre in 2013. In March 2015, the centre introduced four top computer engineering and education professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States to conduct academic visits and exchanges at the University of Macau and other educational institutes in Macao. The group also hosted a cooperation seminar at the then Macao’s Tertiary Education Services Office, with the aim of introducing latest research technologies in online education and big data into the Macao education system to benefit Macao students directly and enhance their learning efficiency.

In 2017, the Stanley Ho Big Data Decision Analytics Research Centre introduced an electronic communication book that it had developed to the Macao community, promoting it to organisations such as the Macau Alzheimer’s Disease Association through the Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation. The E-Commu-Book is designed to aid patients with communication difficulties to communicate with others. It is a cloud-based, expandable and alternative communication tool, and has received positive feedback from elderly caregivers in Macao.

Professor Wong also commissioned as requested CUHK’s Faculty of Engineering to conduct feasibility studies on Macao. Such studies include The Needs and the Values of Establishing Medical Education in Macau and The Economic Benefits of Data Center for Macau, both prepared by CUHK’s Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management in 2013.

 

4.　Professor Franco Maloberti

Introduction

Professor Franco Maloberti received the Laurea Degree in Physics (Summa cum Laude) from the University of Parma, Italy, in 1968 and the Doctorado Honoris Causa degree in Electronics from the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Puebla, Mexico in 1996. He was a Visiting Professor at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule – Physical Electronics Laboratory (ETH-PEL), Zurich in 1993 and at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – The Electronics Laboratory (EPFL-LEG), Lausanne in 2004. He was Professor of Microelectronics and Head of the Micro Integrated Systems Group at the University of Pavia, Italy and the TI/J.Kilby Analog Engineering Chair Professor at the Texas A&M University. He was also the Microelectronics Distinguished Chair Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. Currently he is Emeritus Professor at the University of Pavia, Italy and Honorary Professor at the University of Macau (UM), China. His professional expertise is in the design, analysis and characterisation of integrated circuits and analogue digital applications, mainly in the areas of switched capacitor circuits, data converters, interfaces for telecommunication and sensor systems, and CAD for analogue and mixed A-D design. He has written more than 620 published papers, 10 books and holds 41 patents. He was awarded the XII Pedriali Prize for his technical and scientific contributions to Italian industrial production in 1992. He was co-recipient of the 1996 Institute of Electrical Engineers (U.K.) Fleming Premium. He has been responsible at both technical and management levels for many research programmes including 10 projects under the European Strategic Programme on Research in Information Technology (ESPRIT) and has served the European Commission as ESPRIT Projects’ Evaluator, Reviewer and as European Union expert in many European Initiatives. He served the Academy of Finland on the assessment of electronic research in academic institutions and on the evaluations of research programmes. He served the National Research Council of Portugal on a Board for the research activity assessment of Portuguese universities. He was a Member of the Advisory Board of the Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores in Lisbon (INESC-Lisbon), Portugal. He was the Chairman of the Academic Committee (Scientific Advisory Board) of the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI at UM.

He is the Division I Director of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was the President of the IEEE CAS Society (2016-2017), Vice President of the Region 8 of IEEE CAS Society (1995-1997), Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs (TCAS-II), President of the IEEE Sensor Council (2002-2003), member of the IEEE CAS Board of Governors (2003-2005), and Vice President of the Publications of IEEE CAS Society (2007-2008). He was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE SSC Society (2009-2010) and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE CAS Society (2006-2007; 2012-2013). He has received many awards including the 1999 IEEE CAS Society Meritorious Service Award, the 2000 CAS Society Golden Jubilee Medal, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the 1996 Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Fleming Premium, the European Solid State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC) 2007 Best Paper Award, the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) Workshop 2007 and 2010 Best Paper Award and the IEEE CAS Society 2013 Mac Van Valkenburg Award.

He is a member of the Editorial Board of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, and a Life Fellow of the IEEE.

Reasons for nomination

Professor Franco Maloberti now serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/board.html). He is the IEEE Division I Director (2022-2023) and oversees three IEEE societies, namely the Electron Devices Society (EDS), the Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) and the Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS). He is one of those rare individuals that devote their lives to science and academia, contributing significantly to the fast development of high and new technologies, in particular Microelectronics, as well as the nurturing of young professionals in this field.

He has written more than 620 papers, 10 books and holds 41 patents. He has contributed significantly to the development of Microelectronics in UM throughout the years. For that, UM conferred on him an Honorary Professorship in 2009. After that, he continued to collaborate with the university and co-authored with UM an ADC paper in 2010 with more than 600 citations (the most cited paper of the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI (SKL-AMSV)). He was the Chairman of the SKL-AMSV Academic Committee (Scientific Advisory Board) for about 12 years (2 terms), where he assisted the SKL-AMSV to build a world-class team, and to achieve top scientific recognition (e.g. UM ranked No. 1 in terms of number of papers in the 70^th ISSCC in 2023). With his roles in IEEE, he had been playing an active role in supporting UM in publishing its research achievements, which really helped to place UM and Macao on the world map of state-of-the-art Electronics.

 

5.　Professor William Shiyuan Wang

Introduction

Prof. William Shiyuan Wang, with his ancestral home in Huaiyuan, Anhui Province, was born in 1933 in Shanghai. He is a world-renowned linguist, and an academician of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1960, established the Department of Linguistics and the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the Ohio State University from 1963 to 1965, and served as Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1966 to 1995, and Chair Professor of Language Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong from 1996 to 2004. He was also a Research Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2015, and Chair Professor of Language and Cognitive Sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 2015 to now. Professor Wang founded the Journal of Chinese Linguistics in 1973, which has been the leading academic platform in the field for half a century. He was elected the Founding President of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics in 1992, and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Anthropology by the Shanghai Society of Anthropology in 2017. In 2018, he was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Chicago. In addition, he was awarded honorary professorships by Peking University, Fudan University, Nankai University and many other prestigious universities.

During Professor Wang’s well-established academic life over the past few decades, he has made contributions to the fields of language theory, language engineering, evolutionary linguistics, computational linguistics, experimental phonetics, and cognition and neurolinguistics. He has published a good number of influential articles in top international journals such as Nature and Scientific American. The Lexical Diffusion Theory, which he initiated, is a classic theoretical model with worldwide impact in the field of historical linguistics, and is widely recognised and followed by scholars. His ground-breaking and pioneering contributions in phonetics, phonology and evolutionary linguistics have been extensively acknowledged and commended by the academic community. For years, Professor Wang has actively advocated interdisciplinary and collaborative research integrating brain science, mathematics, genetic science and archaeology, leading the way in the development of linguistics, and cultivating a large number of linguistic talents. He has made indelible and landmark contributions to Chinese and world linguistics, enjoying an extraordinary reputation in the international academic community.

Reasons for nomination

Since Professor Wang started teaching at universities in Hong Kong in 1996, he has cared about and been supportive of the development of linguistics at the University of Macau (UM). In particular, he repeatedly provided in-depth guidance and valuable assistance to UM’s research in cognitive linguistics in recent years, which has been an important factor leading to the achievement and impact of its cognitive linguistics team today. Linguistics is UM’s highest ranked and most impactful humanities subject around the world, and has shown a good momentum of rapid development. Awarding this accolade to Professor Wang should further strengthen his support for the linguistics discipline at the University of Macau in key aspects such as academic exchange, research collaboration, and joint publications, and significantly improve the university’s research quality and international presence in the field.

The University of Macau believes that in view of his high academic stature and immense academic influence, conferring the honorary doctorate on Professor William Shiyuan Wang will definitely create an enormous positive effect for the university in the academic community, especially in related disciplines.