Dear Colleagues and Students,

The University Council (UC) agreed at its 5^th meeting of last academic year to the conferment of honorary degree proposed by the UC members and the Senate. It was agreed to confer Doctor of Science honoris causa on Academician Gong Qihuang. 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 candidate for the award of honorary degree. The Chancellor approved, on 31 July 2024, the above proposal for the conferment of honorary degree.

To recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of Academician Gong Qihuang in his area, the University will hold a ceremony for the conferment of honorary degree on 15 June 2025 (Sunday).

Yours sincerely,

Rico Lam
Secretary, Honorary Degrees and Titles Committee

 

Introduction to the Honorary Degree Recipient

Academician Gong Qihuang

Introduction

Academician Gong Qihuang was born in August 1964. His ancestral hometown is Putian in Fujian province. In 1979, he was admitted to the Department of Physics of Peking University, and received his bachelor’s degree in 1983. Afterwards, he continued his successive master’s and doctoral programme at Peking University, and received his Doctor of Science degree in 1989. He has been working at Peking University since then. In 2013, Academician Gong was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2018, he was elected as a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Academician Gong was also elected as a fellow of the Institute of Physics in the UK in 2007, and of Optica and the International Society for Optics and Photonics in the US in 2010 and 2018 respectively. Since June 2022, Academician Gong has served as the president of Peking University. In October 2022, he was elected as an alternate member of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He currently serves as a member of the 10th Standing Committee of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), and vice-president of the Beijing Association for Science and Technology.

The innovative research team of extreme optics led by Academician Gong has become a research team with significant academic influence at home and abroad. Over the past decade, the team has produced one academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, four Changjiang Distinguished Professors, and three leading scholars of the ‘Ten Thousand Talent Programme’. Members of the team have made remarkable achievements in their respective fields, which have been highly acclaimed internationally by their peers. Several team members have been elected as fellows of international societies, and have served as editors-in-chief of important journals at home and abroad such as Light: Science & Applications and Fundamental Research, and as chairs of Photonics Asia, Asian Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena and other academic conferences. Positioning himself at the cutting edge of the world’s science and technology, Academician Gong is also committed to addressing the strategic needs of the nation by actively promoting the integration of industry-academia-research. He has taken the lead in establishing research institutions including the Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics and the Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics at Peking University, and has promoted the establishment of the ‘Laser-Driven Multi-Beam Flow’ major scientific facility, so as to facilitate China’s scientific and technological advancement as well as the high quality development of its economy and society.

Academician Gong has worked in the management of Peking University for many years, and is experienced in both the theory and practice of higher education management. At Peking University, he previously served as associate dean of the School of Physics, deputy director of the Department of Development and Planning, executive vice dean of the Graduate School, provost, member of the CPC Standing Committee of Peking University, vice president, and executive vice president. He has been president of Peking University from 2022 onwards. In managing the university, Academician Gong values the cultivation of outstanding and innovative talents, the quality improvement of undergraduate education and the promotion of substantive development of postgraduate education. He also focuses on faculty building, promoting the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the university through talent cultivation and improving the mechanism for attracting and nurturing high-level talents. Apart from that, he emphasises the enhancement of research capability, upholds the principle of ‘Walking on Two Legs’ through both goal-oriented and free exploration approaches, and strengthens organised scientific research. Moreover, Academician Gong advocates the openness of university education and promotes collaboration with various industries in different regions, including Macao, to achieve mutual benefit. Academician Gong has committed himself to the promotion of global exchanges in education, science and technology, and culture. At present, Peking University has become a world-class university with a high reputation both at home and abroad, and is accelerating its development towards loftier aspirations with firm roots in China.

Justification for Nomination

Academician Gong Qihuang’s research interests are in nonlinear optics and ultrafast photonics. Since 1983, he has been engaged in research on the frontiers of nonlinear optics and small-scale space-time optics, carrying out systematic and innovative research on physical properties, new effects and applications. He has proposed a new method to achieve ultrafast and giant third-order nonlinear optical response through rapid charge transfer in the excited state, and realised high-performance ultrafast low-threshold all-optical switch. He has also developed femtosecond/nanosecond high spatiotemporal-resolved optical measurements, which enabled ultrafast photo-modulation of nanostructures and artificial modulation of the electronic state. In addition, he has proposed a new principle of chaos-assisted rapid transformation of photonic momentum, and has realised the ultra-wideband coupling between ultrahigh-quality-factor optical micro-cavities and nano-scale waveguides, breaking through the limitation of phase-matching (i.e. momentum conservation) for near-field coupling of micro-nano optical devices. With strong academic attainments, Academician Gong has made outstanding contributions to the field of physics.

Academician Gong received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 1995 to serve as the head of ‘Extreme Optics’ Research Team and the academic leader of ‘Innovative Research Group’ under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China. He was also Chief Scientist in 973 Programme and in ‘Extreme Optics’ Systematic Innovation Centre. In Nature, Science, Nature Photonics, Nature Physics, Nature Nanotechnology, Physical Review Letters and other journals, Academician Gong has published over 1400 papers which have been cited more than 49,000 times by SCI, with an H-index of 104. In addition, he holds 26 granted patents and gave over 50 invited talks at important international conference series, such as the International Conference on Nanophotonics and Conference on Nonlinear Optical Materials and Devices.

Academician Gong won many scientific awards. He received the “Wang Daheng Optical Award” from the Chinese Optical Society (COS) in 1996, the “Outstanding Young Scholar Award” from Hong Kong Qiu shi Science and Technologies Foundation in 1997, and the First Prize of Beijing Science and Technology (as the first contributor) in 2003. In addition, he was awarded the ”Rao Yu-tai Prize” by Chinese Physical Society in 2005, the Second Class of National Natural Science Award (as the first contributor) in 2011, and the First Class of Natural Science Award by the Ministry of Education in 2015. He won the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 2016. He was also the winner of the Second Class of China Higher Education Institutions Scientific and Technological Progress Award, the First Class of Ministry of Education Scientific and Technological Progress Award, the First Class of COS Rao Yu-tai Youth Basic Optics Award, and China Youth Science and Technology Award. His research achievements were included in the ‘Top 10 Progresses in University Research of China’ three times in 2012, 2014 and 2017. He received an honorary doctorate from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November 2023.

Academician Gong was the recipient of many honorary titles. He was granted the State Council Special Allowance. He was conferred the titles of Top Ten Outstanding Youth in Beijing, National Outstanding Returned Overseas Students, Chinese Doctoral Degree Holder with Outstanding Contributions, National Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow and National Outstanding Science and Technology Professional. His team was awarded the “Overseas Chinese Community Innovative Team Award”. He was also the recipient of ‘Beijing May Fourth Youth Medal’ and the Grand Prize of ‘Baosteel Education Foundation Outstanding Teacher’. Moreover, he was selected as one of the first batch of leading talents under the “Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talents Programme” (Ten Thousand Talent Programme).

Academician Gong currently serves on the editorial boards of international journals, including Optics Communications and Advanced Optical Materials. He also served on the editorial boards of Optics Letters, Chemical Physics Letters, Chemical Physics and associate editor-in-chief of Science Bulletin, Acta Physica Sinica, Chinese Optics Letters and Chinese Physics B. In addition, Academician Gong served as a secretary of Commission on Quantum Electronics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and a member of the International Commission for Optics and Congressional Fellowship Selection Committee of Optica. He was also a member of the Standing Committee of China Association for Science and Technology, a member of the 6th, 7th and 8th Subject Discussion Panel on Physics and Astronomy of Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council.

When holding a leadership position at Peking University, Academician Gong actively pushed forward collaboration and exchange between Peking University and the University of Macau by strengthening exchange of visits between teachers and students and boosting academic, research and talent nurturing cooperation. Meanwhile, many projects were launched on his watch. In December 2019, Peking University and the University of Macau jointly founded ‘UM Centre for Constitutional Law and Basic Law Studies’, a key research partner base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, so as to advance steady development of the ‘one country, two systems’ practice in Macao. In September 2021, the two universities launched an initiative together to establish the ‘Academic Library Alliance for Portuguese Language Resources between the Macao SAR and the Mainland of China’ proposed by the University of Macau to promote sharing of academic resources among libraries and give impetus to the cultivation of bilingual talent who are proficient in Chinese and Portuguese languages. In May 2022, in order to deepen their cooperation, Yuanpei College of Peking University and Cheng Yu Tung College of the University of Macau established the summer exchange programme, increasing mutual visits and cultural exchange between college students. Also, the two universities jointly put forward the establishment of the ‘Digital Intelligence International Development Education Alliance’ proposed by Peking University to facilitate the integration of emerging technologies into higher education. In November 2023, Academician Gong supported and established a strategic partnership between Peking University and the University of Macau to strengthen academic and research collaboration and exchange in various disciplines and fields. He proactively promotes exchange among higher education institutions, the development of higher education and scientific research in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the establishment of world-class universities with Chinese characteristics, making significant contributions to continued high-quality development of higher education in China and beyond.

Academician Gong has made tremendous efforts to nurture and train talents in various fields. In December 2021, he shared his valuable experience in and insights into the development of residential colleges at the ‘University of Macau Residential College Education Forum’. In July 2023, he shared how the strategy for invigorating China through science and education has been implemented as part of ‘Macao Higher Education Institutions Leader Study Tour’ hosted by Peking University. In November 2023, he gave a lecture on practices and thoughts on student nurturing and faculty development as part of UM’s ‘University Lecture Series’. He has earnestly implemented the strategy for invigorating China through science and education, shouldered great responsibilities for cultivating and gathering talent, and made tremendous contributions towards accelerating the building of world hubs for talent and innovation.