Yung Kai-leung and the "Named Professorship" System: From a Mechanical Engineering Diploma to Space Instruments

In 1970, a student at the Hong Kong Polytechnic received his mechanical engineering diploma; half a century later, a camera built by his team sits on the surface of Mars taking pictures. This article traces the full arc of Professor Yung Kai-leung's career to unpack PolyU's "Named Professorship" system — how it ties donors, founding fathers and today's frontier research into a single chair appointment. For an overview of professors and leaders, see faculty-and-leaders.md; for Yung Kai-leung's alumni status, see ./notable-alumni.md; for his scholarship, mentorship and the origins of the epithet "Father of Space Instruments", see the profile rong-qiliang-space-engineer-profile.md — this article focuses on the system, that one on the man; the two angles complement, not repeat, each other.

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# 1. What is a "Named Professorship"?

A named (or endowed) professorship is a standard fixture of universities worldwide: a chair named after a donor, company or commemorated figure, held by a scholar of outstanding distinction in the field. It serves a dual purpose. For the scholar, it is an honour and a mark of recognition, usually carrying research resources. For the donor or the memory being honoured, it "permanises" a gift in an academic post — the point where philanthropy and academic excellence meet (for the broader giving landscape, see 08 Finances · Roll of Benefactors and Donors).

The most representative example at PolyU is Professor Yung Kai-leung. He has led PolyU's development of several national space instruments — the Camera Pointing System (Chang'e 3/4), the Surface Sampling and Packing System (Chang'e 5/6) and the Mars Landing Surveillance Camera (Tianwen-1). According to a PolyU press release^※, his title is "Sir Sze-yuen Chung Professor in Precision Engineering".

For PolyU, the named-professorship system delivers three kinds of value: attracting and retaining top scholars (the honour and resources help recruit first-rate talent), showcasing a culture of giving (a gift made permanent in an academic post, complementing the RMGS matching scheme, see 08 Finances · The Three Funding Pipelines for Research), and connecting history to the future (a chair named for a historical figure passes the institution's legacy on to a contemporary scholar). In short: the named professorship is PolyU's "institutional device" for carrying distinguished scholars on the one hand and using history to inspire today's researchers on the other.

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# 2. "Named" vs "Endowed" Professorships — PolyU's two-track system

What makes Yung's chair distinctive in PolyU's roster of professors is a systemic detail that is easy to miss: the University's endowed-chair system actually runs on two tracks, and Yung's chair sits on the far scarcer one.

According to an official PolyU press release of 13 September 2024^※, PolyU established the Endowed Professorship Scheme in 2012; as of September 2024, the University had built 39 Endowed Professorships, 2 Named Professorships, and — under the separately launched Endowed Young Scholars Scheme (2021) — 10 Endowed Young Scholars posts. Behind those three numbers lie three distinct logics of giving-and-naming.

Endowed Professorships are by far the most numerous of the three, and are typically named directly after a living donor, their family foundation or company — the classic "donor gets their name on it" form. One example is the Walter & Wendy Kwok Family Foundation Endowed Professorship in International Hospitality Management^※, funded by the family foundation of the late Dr. Walter Kwok Ping-sheung and his wife, and currently held by Professor Kaye Chon, Dean of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management. Another is the Able Endowed Professorship in Construction Health and Safety^※, endowed by the listed construction firm Able Engineering Holdings and held by Professor Albert Chan, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate. These two examples represent the two most common giving patterns — "family-foundation naming" and "listed-company naming": the chair's name is the donor's own name or trading style.

Named Professorships, by contrast, number just 2 University-wide — and Yung's "Sir Sze-yuen Chung Professor in Precision Engineering" is one of them. The fundamental difference from the 39 endowed chairs is this: Sir Sze-yuen Chung was not a living donor, nor did he ever put his personal funds towards naming a chair. The post was established by PolyU to commemorate a founding figure of the institution — its naming logic is "honouring the founders", not "donor leaves their own name behind". In other words, one track answers the question "who put up the money?", the other answers "where did this university come from?". Yung happens to sit on the far rarer, second track — which is exactly the institutional basis for the opening observation that one chair binds together an entire institutional history.

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# 3. Who is Yung Kai-leung, and what positions does he hold at PolyU?

Yung Kai-leung (b. 1949) is a Chair Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering^※ at PolyU, and concurrently Director of the University's Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE)^※.

He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (elected 2014)^※, a member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and writes under the title "Ir Professor". His research spans precision mechanics, mechatronics, automatic control systems, computer-integrated manufacturing and deep-space exploration, and he is the key figure connecting PolyU's precision-manufacturing capability to the national space programme.

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# 4. How did he end up building space instruments?

Yung's starting point was the Hong Kong Polytechnic — PolyU's predecessor. He earned a mechanical engineering diploma there in 1970^※, then went to Britain to continue his studies: a BSc in electronic engineering at Brighton Polytechnic (1975), an MSc and a Diploma of Imperial College in automatic control systems at Imperial College London (1976), and a PhD on "The Application of Microprocessors to Process Control" from Plymouth Polytechnic (1985).

He then spent nearly fourteen years working in the UK, at BOC Advanced Welding, the Ever Ready battery group, and — most relevant to his later specialism — the precision engineering unit at Cranfield. In 1986 he returned to Hong Kong, served briefly as a consultant at the Hong Kong Productivity Council, and in the same year joined his alma mater's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, where he has remained ever since. From a student in 1970 to a professor leading national lunar instruments half a century later, he has completed an entire research career within the same institution.

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# 5. Which national space missions has he worked on, and what roles did he play?

Six missions spanning nearly three decades, from low Earth orbit (Mir) to the Moon and Mars — the most complete record of any Hong Kong scientist's deep involvement in the national deep-space programme. PolyU has confirmed^※ that Yung is "the first scientist in Hong Kong to develop space instruments for national space missions".

# 5.1 What is the Chang'e 5 "Surface Sampling and Packing System", and what made it so hard?

In 2011^※, Yung was commissioned by the national programme to lead development of the "Surface Sampling and Packing System" for Chang'e 5 — a robotic system capable of autonomously collecting, sealing and packing lunar regolith on the Moon's surface. After nearly a decade of development, the system operated successfully on the lunar surface in December 2020 as part of the Chang'e 5 mission, collecting and sealing more than 1.5 kg of lunar soil^※.

The system is made up of more than 400 components^※, chiefly of titanium alloy, aluminium alloy and stainless steel, with a total mass of about 1.5 kg. It carries two near-field cameras rated to withstand temperatures up to 130°C, and must operate reliably in the Moon's punishing environment — surface temperatures up to 110°C, extreme vacuum and cosmic radiation. Yung has put it plainly: 「以机器人方式采集大量月壤是前所未有的壮举……复杂流程链中任何一个细微故障，都可能令全部努力瞬间付诸东流。」 ("Collecting a large quantity of lunar soil by robot is an unprecedented feat… any tiny failure in the complex chain of processes could let all the effort go to waste in an instant.")

An upgraded version of the same system automatically sampled and sealed lunar soil on the far side of the Moon on 3 June 2024^※ during the Chang'e 6 mission, collecting around 1.6 kg of far-side material^※ — the first lunar far-side soil sample in human history. Because the far side cannot communicate directly with Earth, the system's requirements for fully autonomous visual guidance and fault tolerance were far more demanding than on the near-side mission.

# 5.2 What was the Tianwen-1 Mars camera for?

Tianwen-1 was China's first independently executed Mars exploration mission, landing in Utopia Planitia in May 2021^※. The "Mars Landing Surveillance Camera" developed by Yung's team was mounted on the Tianwen-1 lander to monitor the landing process and the spacecraft's post-landing status — one of the key imaging instruments for confirming a safe touchdown on the Martian surface.

The camera had to meet every extreme-environment requirement of interplanetary flight — deep-space radiation, enormous temperature swings, months of launch and cruise vibration — while preserving optical performance and mechanical stability. Yung stressed in an interview that "aerospace engineering is a field requiring enormous capital and time, so any mistake is simply not permissible" (航天工程是一个需要巨大资本与时间的领域，因此不能有任何失误).

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# 6. What major honours has he received?

The Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS, 2015^※) is awarded by the HKSAR Government to professionals who have made outstanding contributions in fields such as scientific research and engineering. The Geneva Gold Medal is among the most credible prizes in the global invention-exhibition circuit, and Yung has won it repeatedly since 2007 — a span of nearly two decades.

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# 7. What role does the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations play?

PolyU's Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE) was established in 2021^※, with Yung as its founding Director. PolyU is the only tertiary institution in Hong Kong that has continuously participated in national space missions^※; since 2010 it has operated a joint laboratory with the China Academy of Space Technology, deepening its work in precision machinery for deep-space exploration.

The Centre houses joint laboratories and multiple research directions. Yung himself also serves on the Academic Committee of the National Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (Mars sample-return mission)^※ and on the expert group for the Mars sample-return mission of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center^※, directly involved in top-level planning for the next phase of national deep-space exploration. In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, he said that young people joining aerospace research have "unlimited prospects"^※, encouraging researchers from Hong Kong and Macao to throw themselves into national big-science projects.

The deep-space foundation laid by Yung and RCDSE is also the starting point of PolyU's continued upgrading on the national space map. According to an official PolyU press release of May 2026^※, PolyU congratulated Dr. Lai Ka-ying on becoming Hong Kong's first payload specialist, joining the Shenzhou 23 crewed mission. The release notes that PolyU, "deeply engaged in deep-space exploration, remote sensing and precision engineering, has been deeply involved in the core missions of the Chang'e and Tianwen series", and has established the PolyU Academy for Aerospace Research (PAAR) and a joint laboratory on space manufacturing technology with the Chinese Academy of Sciences — moving from "ground support" towards "in-orbit practice in space". This trajectory — from Yung's team's instruments flying into space, to a Hong Kong payload specialist himself taking up residence on the space station — is a concrete footnote to PolyU's deep-space endeavour moving from "participation" to "deep co-construction". RCDSE is an early institutional node on that trajectory, not its endpoint.

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# 8. How is his academic influence and legacy reflected?

Yung places great emphasis on nurturing talent. A former student of his, Ko Sui-man, has grown into a researcher in deep-space exploration; Yung sums up this legacy as "passing on professional engineering skills, and above all passing on the spirit of research" (传授专业工程技能，更传递科研精神). Nor is his research confined to space: his precision-engineering methods have equally been applied to the development of a minimally invasive surgical robotic system^※, a two-way demonstration of how space technology can be transferred to civilian use.

In an interview with a PolyU publication, Yung once said that scientists need "solid foundational research capability" (扎实的基础研究能力) and, equally, "cross-disciplinary communication skills" (跨领域沟通能力), because innovation is always a product of teamwork. This conviction runs through his entire career, from hand-making components as a student to leading national lunar and Mars instruments — from studying at the Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1970 to twenty-first-century national missions to the Moon and Mars. The fusion of scholar and engineer in one person is the rare, complete arc that his PolyU profile represents.

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# 9. FAQ

Q1: Is Yung Kai-leung an alumnus of PolyU or a member of staff?

Both. He earned his mechanical engineering diploma at the Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1970, making him an alumnus; he returned to teach at his alma mater in 1986 and has been a faculty member ever since, now as Chair Professor. This "alumnus returns to teach" path is not unusual in PolyU's roster (see also Lam Tai-fai); see ./notable-alumni.md.

Q2: Where does the name "Sir Sze-yuen Chung Professor in Precision Engineering" come from?

Sir Sze-yuen Chung was the first Chairman of the Council at the founding of the Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1972 — one of the founding figures of the University's governance (his own degree was a BSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Hong Kong; he was not a PolyU alumnus). PolyU established the chair in his name, and it is now held by Yung Kai-leung — an instance within the named-professorship system where a founding father and a contemporary top researcher are joined by a single title.

Q3: With 39 endowed professorships University-wide, why isn't Yung's chair counted among them, but classed as a "Named Professorship"?

Because the naming logics differ. According to a 2024 official PolyU press release^※, all 39 Endowed Professorships are named after living donors, their family foundations or their companies (such as the Kwok family foundation or Able Engineering Holdings) — "whoever pays gets the chair named after them". The 2 Named Professorships, by contrast, are named after deceased historical figures, established to commemorate their foundational contribution to the University; Yung's Sze-yuen Chung chair belongs to this category. In short: endowed professorships record "who funded this university", named professorships record "where this university came from" — see Section 2 above.

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