Croucher marks its Foundation Day with a celebration
The celebration took place on 8 December following a symposium held at M+ involving over one hundred of its scholars and other leading scientists from Hong Kong.
The Croucher Foundation held its Foundation Day Dinner and Awards Presentation Ceremony on 8 December at the Ritz-Carlton to present the Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Awards 2023 to four distinguished scholars from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Hong Kong, for their outstanding scientific research achievements. Professor Dong Sun, the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was the Guest of Honour at the ceremony. On the same evening, scholarships and fellowships going back to 2019 were presented to a total of 120 Croucher scholars.
The winners of the Tak Wah Mak Innovation Awards 2023 were:
Hari Harilela Assistant Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, School of Science, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Assistant Professor, Division of Life Science, School of Science, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Physics, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Hong Kong.
Sir Gregory Winter FRS, 2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Chairman of Noel Croucher Foundation, told the scholars and invited guests that the Foundation remained committed to the original vision of Noel Croucher to promote the standard of natural sciences, technology, and medicine in Hong Kong. ”We do this with our many partners, through supporting our scholars’ talent and hard work, and for the benefit of local, national, and global communities, all of whom come together so successfully in this great city of Hong Kong,” he added.
Professor Sun expressed his appreciation to the Croucher Foundation “for fostering the advancement of science and innovation and technology in our city,” adding that this was an area of high priority for the government of Hong Kong.
Earlier in the day, at the Croucher Symposium, the topics discussed included: Translational Impact, Critical Science Communication & Outreach and AI+ and the Future of Science. One of the senior researchers present commented: “I’ve heard so many good things about the whole day from various scholars in attendance, and had enlightening conversations about geology, experiential education, black holes, field testing robots, music and AI... the topics were so wide-ranging! What an incredible day of outstanding discussions.”
Please see here for the programme and list of speakers.