HKUST Alumni News 2014
1
Foreword
Professor Tony F Chan
President
Dear Alumni,
Fall is a time of year that I love, because this is when we welcome
a new cohort of graduates – and I always enjoy seeing the faces
of our fresh graduates, full of expectation as they venture into the
world with the support of their alma mater behind them.
The Congregation was held for the Class of 2014 in November,
with 4,235 degrees being conferred, expanding our alumni
community to over 54,000. Sir Michael Moritz, Chairman of
Sequoia Capital and one of five honorary doctorates awarded this
year, delivered an inspiring commencement speech.
It was also my delight recently to meet the Class of 2004 on
campus in celebration of their 10th graduation anniversary. It was
a very warm and happy occasion, and I was glad to see that these
alumni have achieved many milestones in both their family life and
careers, and are maintaining close ties with their alma mater.
And talking of milestones, the HKUST Alumni Association
has reached several of its own under the leadership of President
Alvin Lam, and has significantly expanded its reach to the alumni
community in the past two years. I was happy to join the AGM-
cum-Annual Dinner in November and witness their success. My
congratulations go to Alvin and his executive committee who were
reelected and will continue to serve for the coming two years.
I recently took a university trip to Mexico along with Vice-
President for Institutional Advancement Dr Eden Woon and several
faculty members. The purpose of this trip was to explore academic
and research collaborations with universities, government and
industry. It was our pleasure to meet with alumni and students,
and we enjoyed hearing about their developments, and share
with them HKUST’s advanced developments as it enters its third
decade. We found some very interesting partners that our students
will be very interested in.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who have
donated to the Alumni Endowment Fund (AEF). Thanks to your
valuable support, the fund has experienced steady growth, and
as a result more and more students have been able to benefit
from various programs. Special thanks go to Jiang Wenyan and
Cai Yongjun who have contributed HK$1 million and HK$500,000
respectively – you can read more about them on pages 8 and 9. I
hope that alumni will continue to show support to help HKUST and
its students scale even greater heights.
I want to mention one particular beneficiary of AEF support: the
1st HKUST Water Sports Festival-cum-Launching Ceremony of
the HKUST Water Sports Center in October attracted many water
sports lovers – students, alumni, staff and faculty, who competed
fiercely in various races, as you see from the photos on pages
12 and 13. I’m thrilled to see that sporting spirit is soaring on
campus!
Elsewhere in this issue of
Alumni News
we focus on the
entrepreneurial spirit of our graduates, and look at the different
ways in which alumni have found success. Whether it is in a
traditional industry or a startup, it is HKUST’s goal to foster a “can
do” attitude among our students alongside the knowledge they
gain from studying here.
Finally, it is my pleasure to wish you all a happy and prosperous
2015, wherever you are in the world!
Best wishes,
Professor Chanwith Sir Michael Moritz, Chairman of Sequoia Capital
andoneofthefivehonorarydoctoratesawardedthisyear.SirMichael
delivered the commencement speech at the Congregation.
