PolyU Notable Professors and Academic Leaders

A university's leadership title changed names three times in ninety years — from "Director" to "President," tracing PolyU's gradual ascent from an industrial college to a full university. This article surveys the current and historical staff and institutional leaders of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and its predecessors — the Government Trade School (1937), the Hong Kong Technical College (1947), and the Hong Kong Polytechnic (1972) — including successive Directors and Presidents, as well as world-class Chair Professors in aerospace, textiles, hospitality and tourism, civil and structural engineering, computer science, and other fields. The focus here is on the scholars' academic contributions and standing (academy memberships, pioneering work, international awards) and on institutional governance titles; controversies over university politics and contract renewals are not covered in this article but belong in the unofficial-history section. For a full scholarly biography of Professor Yung Kai-leung and an in-depth analysis of the "named chair" system, see faculty-and-leaders-2.md. Notable alumni are covered in notable-alumni.md; the honorary graduates, university fellows, and outstanding alumni award lists appear in honorary-degrees-and-awards.md.

PolyU was founded on applied professional education, excelling at turning fundamental research into industrial and social applications — from design, hospitality and tourism, and textiles and apparel among the service and creative industries, to structural engineering, precision engineering, and artificial intelligence at the technological frontier, to nursing, rehabilitation, and optometry in the health professions. Several threads run through its academic leadership: first, the "alumnus–faculty–leader" circuit: Yung Kai-leung, Lam Tai-fai, and others first studied at PolyU as students before returning to teach or lead; second, the use of Chair Professorships to recruit and honour top scholars, many of whom have been elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, or international learned societies; third, a commitment to national strategy — PolyU is the only university in Hong Kong to participate in the nation's deep-space exploration missions (according to People's Daily Online).

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# 1. Successive Directors and Presidents

The title of PolyU's head has evolved with the institution's status: after the 1972 upgrade to polytechnic status, the post of "Director" was established; after the 1994 upgrade to university status, it was renamed "President." The table below is compiled from public sources (years follow the cited sources):

Institutional timeline: 1937 the Government Trade School was founded on Wood Road, Wan Chai; 1947 it was renamed the Hong Kong Technical College; 1957 the main campus at Hunghom Bay was completed; on 24 March 1972 the Hong Kong Polytechnic Ordinance came into effect, and the Polytechnic was formally established on 1 August; on 25 November 1994 it was elevated to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University^※ (according to Wikipedia).

# Poon Chung-kwong (1940– )

Poon Chung-kwong is a chemist who served as President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic (College/University) from 1991 to 2008, and during his tenure led the Polytechnic's upgrade to university status in 1994^※ (according to English Wikipedia). He holds a D.Sc. and a Ph.D. from University College London and was a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California and Caltech. He was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star (GBS) and the OBE, and served as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. His younger cousin was the late singer Leslie Cheung.

# Timothy W. Tong (1951– )

Timothy W. Tong was the fifth President (1 January 2009 – January 2019) (according to Baidu Baike and Wikipedia). Born and educated in Hong Kong, he went to the United States to study mechanical engineering, earning his B.S. from Oregon State University in 1976, his M.S. from UC Berkeley in 1978, and his Ph.D. in 1980^※; he is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Fellow of the International Heat Transfer Conference, and a specialist in heat transfer. Before joining PolyU he served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at George Washington University. After retiring he became Emeritus Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at PolyU.

# Teng Jin-Guang (1964– )

Teng Jin-Guang is the sixth President, in office since 1 July 2019; in 2024 the Council renewed his term for five years (to 2029) (according to PolyU and Wikipedia). He is a structural engineer specialising in fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) structures; he received his B.Eng. in civil engineering from Zhejiang University in 1983 and his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney in 1990^※ (according to the President's Office). His academic honours are extensive: member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (elected 2017)^※, Foreign Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) (2025), Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (2013), and Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (2023); he has received the State Natural Science Award, Second Class (2013) and the Bronze Bauhinia Star (2024). According to Stanford's "World's Top 2% Scientists" list, between 2019 and 2025 he has consistently ranked 7th or 8th globally in civil engineering, and 1st or 2nd among Chinese scholars (according to the President's Office).

Note: Teng Jin-Guang is the current President. This entry records his neutral and positive academic identity as a distinguished structural engineering scholar (the reference zone 00–12 names him factually); campus-politics and personnel controversies are not covered here.

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# 2. Aerospace and Precision Engineering

# Yung Kai-leung (1953– )

Yung Kai-leung holds the dual identity of alumnus (Polytechnic diploma in mechanical engineering, 1970) and faculty member; he is currently Chair Professor of Precision Engineering in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations, and Associate Head of department (according to Wikipedia). In the 1990s he developed the "Space Mousetrap" used aboard the Mir space station^※; his team has built key instruments for national space missions — the camera-pointing system for the Chang'e-3 and Chang'e-4 lunar missions, the surface-sampling and packaging device for Chang'e-5's lunar sample return, and the landing-and-fire-monitoring camera for the Tianwen-1 Mars mission^※ (according to People's Daily Online). He has won multiple gold medals and Grand Prix special accolades at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, received the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) in 2015, and was elected Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2014 (according to Wikipedia). His alumni identity is covered in notable-alumni.md.

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# 3. Textiles and Fashion

# Tao Xiaoming (To Chi-ho)

Tao Xiaoming is Chair Professor of Textile Technology at PolyU, Head of the Department of Textiles and Clothing, and Director of the Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (established 2021) (according to The Paper interview and PolyU); she is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. She earned her B.Eng. in textile engineering from China Textile University (now Donghua University) in 1982 and her Ph.D. in textile physics from the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1987^※. By combining optical fibres with textile composites, she pioneered the field of intelligent textiles; her publications include the monograph Smart Fibres, Fabrics and Clothing and she has served as World President of the Textile Institute, whose highest individual honour — Honorary Fellowship — she received, along with the Founding Member Award of the Fiber Society (US). Her team's twisted-tow yarn-spinning technology and washable electronic yarns are applied in healthcare and sports-medicine settings. Tao was honoured with the 2023 Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award in the academic-achievement category^※ (according to PolyU's Outstanding Alumni Award materials).

Note: Tao received the Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award in the academic-achievement category in her capacity as a faculty member, reflecting PolyU's practice of honouring excellence across the whole university community; since neither her bachelor's nor doctoral degree was awarded by PolyU, this article includes her under the faculty/scholar identity.

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# 4. Hotel and Tourism Management

# Kaye Kye-Sung Chon

Professor Kaye Chon is Dean of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at PolyU, Chair Professor, and the Walter Kwok Foundation Professor in International Hospitality Management (according to PolyU SHTM and English Wikipedia). He became Dean of SHTM in 2000; during his tenure the unit was elevated to a "School" in 2001 and became an independent academic unit in 2004^※. Before joining PolyU he taught at the University of Houston, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Virginia Tech; he founded the teaching hotel Hotel ICON and received the UNWTO Ulysses Prize — often called the Nobel Prize of tourism studies — from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Under his leadership, SHTM has consistently ranked among the world's top institutions in international hotel and tourism discipline rankings.

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# 5. Civil, Structural, and Built Environment

PolyU's Faculty of Construction and Environment holds international standing in civil engineering, surveying, and building services. Besides current President Teng Jin-Guang (structural engineering, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; see above), the English Wikipedia entry for PolyU notes that in 2025 four of its scholars ranked among the global top 10 in their fields — architecture and construction, operations research, geological and geomatics engineering, and civil engineering — on the "World's Top 2% Scientists" list^※ (according to English Wikipedia).

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# 6. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

# Cao Jiannong

Cao Jiannong is Dean of the Graduate School, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science, Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing in the Department of Computing, and Director of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (according to South China Normal University and University of Science and Technology Beijing seminar reports, and Baidu Baike). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM); his research covers distributed systems, blockchain, wireless sensing and networking, big data and machine learning, and mobile cloud and edge computing. He has published more than 500 academic papers and received the China Computer Federation (CCF) Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award (2017)^※ (according to CCF).

# Lei Zhang

Lei Zhang joined PolyU as an Assistant Professor in 2006 and has been a Chair Professor since 2017^※ (according to a Chinese-scholar profile feature). He works in computer vision, image processing, and pattern recognition; he is an IEEE Fellow and was named a Clarivate "Highly Cited Researcher" every year from 2015 to 2023 (citation volume placing him in the top 1% of his field).

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# 7. Founding Figures and Institutional Governance (the Council)

PolyU was not "founded" by a single scholar but jointly established by the government and the business community. The following figures are included in their foundational/governance capacity (not as academic faculty); their academic and educational backgrounds are noted where relevant:

# Chung Sze-yuen (1917–2018)

Sir Chung Sze-yuen was an industrial pioneer and politician in Hong Kong. His own degree was a first-class honours B.Sc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Hong Kong (1941) (according to Wikipedia); he was not a Polytechnic alumnus. However, he played a key role in establishing the Hong Kong Polytechnic and became the first Chairman of its Council upon its founding in 1972^※ (according to Wikipedia and related reports). He was also instrumental in founding the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong (now City University of Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and served as the first Convener of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong SAR (1997–1999). PolyU has a building named after him, "Chung Sze Yuen Building."

# Lam Tai-fai (1959– )

Lam Tai-fai is an alumnus of the Polytechnic's Department of Textiles and Clothing, a former Managing Director of Peninsula Knitters Ltd., and was awarded a University Fellowship by PolyU in 2000 and an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration in 2004^※; he currently serves as Chairman of the Council of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (according to PolyU and mainland-university visit reports). He assumed the Council chairmanship of his alma mater as a PolyU alumnus. His alumni and business-career record is covered in notable-alumni.md.

Note: Lam Tai-fai is the current Council Chairman. This site's guidelines require that current leaders be unnamed in contexts involving campus politics, unofficial history, or controversy; this entry falls in the neutral reference zone (00–12) and states only his neutral positive alumni identity and governance title (no controversial content), so he is named factually. Campus-politics controversies are assigned to the unofficial-history section.

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# 8. Design and Creative Disciplines

# Cees de Bont

Professor Cees de Bont is a former Dean of the School of Design at PolyU and currently Vice President (Academic). De Bont took the helm of PolyU's School of Design in 2014^※; during his tenure he drove the School's internationalisation strategy, industry–academia integration, and the diffusion of design thinking into other disciplines. Under his leadership, the School has won iF awards and Red Dot awards year after year and has consistently ranked among the top in Asia in the QS World University Rankings for art and design.

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# 9. Built Environment and Civil Engineering

PolyU's Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) has comprehensive strengths in surveying, quantity surveying, structures, geotechnics, building environment, and related fields. Besides current President Teng Jin-Guang (structural engineering, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), FCE also counts several other leading scholars:

# Zhong Guohui

Professor Zhong Guohui is Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at FCE and Director of the Hong Kong Branch of the National Engineering Research Centre for Steel Structure Engineering and Technology of China. In 2023 he received the third "National Innovation Award for Excellence," the sole winner from Hong Kong for that cycle (according to a PolyU press release)^※. The award is jointly presented by China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the China Association for Science and Technology, among others, every three years, and is one of the highest national honours for Chinese science and technology workers. His research on high-strength steel structures has been applied to major projects including the twin-arch steel bridge on the Tseung Kwan O Cross Bay Link.

# Pan Zhisheng (scholars associated with Ni Yiqing)

Other FCE scholars have published highly cited papers in structural health monitoring, super-tall buildings, and landslide-warning applications. For the authoritative full roster, see the faculty directory on the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering website^※.

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# 10. Business and Finance

PolyU's Faculty of Business is representative in business-discipline rankings.

# Research directions in finance and management

According to the Faculty of Business website, the Department of Accounting and Finance is one of Hong Kong's principal training units for professional accountants (CPA) — maintaining high levels of accreditation cooperation with HKICPA (the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants), ACCA, ICAEW, and other international professional bodies.

The Faculty houses research centres including the Research Centre for Transnational Operations and Corporate Governance, and its scholars' work appears in top journals such as the Journal of Finance and The Accounting Review.

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# 11. Engineering Disciplines — Further Chair Professors

# Hu Xiaoling

According to a PolyU press release of December 2024^※, a team led by Hu Xiaoling, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, developed a portable ankle-foot neuromuscular exoskeleton robot for stroke rehabilitation that received a CES 2025 Innovation Award in the "Accessibility & Age-Tech" category — CES, the global consumer-electronics show, is one of the world's largest technology exhibitions, and the awards are given to a select few among thousands of entries.

# Chung Sze-yuen's legacy in university engineering education

PolyU's engineering education has been shaped by industry influence since its founding; the word "applied" is written into the institution's identity. According to Wikipedia, PolyU engineering graduates have long led Hong Kong institutions in the number registered as professional engineers and the number obtaining Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) chartership, supplying the construction, manufacturing, aviation-maintenance, and other industries with a steady stream of engineering talent.

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# 12. Nursing and Health Sciences — Chair Professors and Scholars

PolyU's School of Nursing has 21 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers for 2025 — among the highest densities of highly cited nursing researchers of any Hong Kong institution.

# Chien Wai-tong

According to the School of Nursing's "Research" page^※, its scholars consistently publish high-impact papers in mental-health nursing, chronic-disease self-management, cancer care, and end-of-life care. Professor Chien Wai-tong is a specialist in mental-health nursing and has been named to global highly cited researcher lists on multiple occasions.

# Optometry research — the DIMS team

The "Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments" (DIMS) spectacle lens research led by Philip Chong-ki Cho's team at the School of Optometry — published in Ophthalmology and commercialised in partnership with HOYA — is the single most industrially influential research output in PolyU's health sciences and a showcase case of knowledge transfer from Hong Kong's health disciplines.

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# 13. International Mobility of Scholars and the Chair-Professorship Model

PolyU's "Chair Professor" system is the core mechanism for attracting and retaining top scholars:

• Some Chair Professorships are endowed and named after donors (e.g. the Walter Kwok Foundation Professor in International Hospitality Management is named after its donor);
• Some Chair Professorships are tied to national-level platforms (e.g. Yung Kai-leung's directorship of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations);
• PolyU placed 428 scholars on Stanford's "World's Top 2% Scientists" list (2024 data);
• In the 2025 Clarivate "Highly Cited Researchers" list PolyU has 21 honourees, spanning nursing, engineering, computer science, and materials science.

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# 14. Research-Institute Leadership and Interdisciplinary Hubs

The heads of several PolyU research institutes combine academic leadership with industry-translation roles:

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