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The Government announced today (December 7) that the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, had appointed Professor Benjamin W Wah as Chairman of the Research Grants Council (RGC) with effect from January 1, 2013, to June 30, 2015.
Professor Wah is a prominent computer scientist, with expertise in non-linear programming, multimedia signal processing and artificial intelligence. He was the Chairman of the Engineering Panel under the RGC between 2006 and 2009. He is currently a member of the RGC, as well as the Provost and Wei Lun Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"Professor Wah is an internationally renowned academic and a seasoned university administrator. With his experience in the higher education sector, I am confident that he will continue to strengthen the vibrant research culture in academia and lead the RGC to scale new heights," Mr Ng said.
Mr Ng also paid tribute to Professor Roland T Chin, the outgoing RGC Chairman, for his stellar contributions and distinguished leadership. "Over his past seven years of service, the RGC has developed into an internationally respected academic research funding body, promoting a merit-based research environment that drives both innovation and quality. With Professor Chin at the helm, research support has diversified considerably, catering to the distinctive needs of researchers and research students in all disciplines at different stages of their careers," he said.
"Professor Chin was instrumental in taking forward the Government's initiatives to establish the Research Endowment Fund and the Theme-based Research Scheme, which respectively provide stable research funding to the higher education sector and promote high-impact research projects on themes of strategic importance to the local community. He also played a pivotal role in promoting research collaboration with Mainland and global partners, and in nurturing outstanding research students and junior academics through the establishment of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme and the Early Career Scheme.
"Professor Chin has devoted himself selflessly to the work of the RGC despite his heavy commitments in other capacities. I sincerely wish him all the best in his future endeavours," he added.
The RGC advises the Government, through the University Grants Committee, on the needs of Hong Kong's higher education institutions in the field of academic research and for the distribution of funding for academic research projects undertaken by academic staff of higher education institutions. The RGC manages a variety of research funding programmes, including the General Research Fund, the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, the Collaborative Research Fund, the Theme-based Research Scheme, etc. It has set up five subject panels to assess research bids in various disciplines such as physical sciences, engineering, biology and medicine, etc.
Ends/Friday, December 7, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:01
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