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The Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has approved the appointment of Professor Sham Mai-har, CUHK Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Choh-Ming Li Professor of Biomedical Sciences, to serve as a member of the CUHK Council in the capacity of “one Pro-Vice-Chancellor, as determined by the Council”, with effect from today (11 July 2025).

The CUHK Council also approved the appointment of several university officers. Professor Irwin King Kuo-chin, currently Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, has been appointed as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) on a concurrent basis for a period of two years. Professor Ko Wing-hung, currently Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, has been re-appointed as the University Dean of Students and concurrently appointed as the newly established Associate Vice-President (Student Experience) for a period of two years. Professor Anthony So Man-cho, Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, has been re-appointed as the Dean of the Graduate School for three years. All appointments will take effect from 1 August 2025.

The University also announces that Mr Kenneth Chen Wei-on will cease to be CUHK Vice-President (Administration) and leave the University’s service on 16 September 2025. The University will commence the recruitment process to fill the position in due course.

Professor Sham Mai-har appointed as CUHK Council Member

Professor Sham Mai-har has been CUHK’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Choh-Ming Li Professor of Biomedical since 2020. She completed her undergraduate and MPhil studies at CUHK in 1981 and 1983 respectively. She then obtained a scholarship from the Croucher Foundation to pursue her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge and had postdoctoral training in developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research, United Kingdom. Before joining CUHK, she was Associate Vice-President (Research) and a Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). As the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at CUHK, Professor Sham oversees the strategic development of research and innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer and research impact in the University. She manages research institutes and centres as well as research support services for technology transfer, intellectual property management, start-ups and commercialisation platforms. She is also responsible for the administration of research fundings and matters relating to research policies and research data management.

As a developmental geneticist, Professor Sham leads a research team focusing on the molecular mechanisms of mammalian development and human congenital disorders. Her research covers areas of gene regulation and molecular signaling, craniofacial and hearing disorders, genetic bases and mutant mouse models of rare human diseases, stem cells, and tissue regeneration. She is currently the President of the Hong Kong Society for Developmental Biology. She serves as an Associate Editor for Gene Expression Patterns and an Editor for Cell and Bioscience.

Professor Irwin King Kuo-chin appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Professor Irwin King Kuo-chin is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the Director of the eLearning Innovation and Technology (ELITE) Centre at CUHK. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology, an M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. During a sabbatical, he worked at AT&T Labs Research on Big Data and also taught courses as a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor King has dedicated his research to machine learning, social computing, web intelligence, data mining and multimedia information processing. His publications have been widely disseminated at top conferences and journals, and he serves as an editorial board member for numerous international publishers. He has received numerous Test of Time Awards at prominent conferences and several lifetime awards from renowned technical societies. He is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, INNS and HKIE.

In addition to his research work, Professor King has been an advocate for eLearning powered by AI technology. He holds six international patents, including the VeriGuide System, a type of plagiarism detection software that identifies similar sentences and analyses the readability of text-based documents in both English and Chinese, promoting academic integrity and honesty. With funding support from the University Grants Committee (UGC), he launched the eLearning platform KEEP (Knowledge & Education Exchange Platform), developed and initiated by CUHK with partner institutions, as a project investigator. KEEP supports the development of innovative teaching and learning strategies using cutting-edge technology.

Professor Ko Wing-hung re-appointed as University Dean of Students and appointed as Associate Vice-President (Student Experience)

Professor Ko Wing-hung is currently the University Dean of Students. He received his B.Sc. from CUHK’s Department of Biology in 1989 and his PhD from CUHK’s Department of Physiology in 1992. Following post-doctoral training at the Institute of Physiology, University of Glasgow, he returned to his alma mater in 1993 as a lecturer. He is now an Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences.

Professor Ko’s research focuses on purinergic receptor-regulated signalling events and ion transport in human airway epithelia, with emphasis on airway inflammation and the development of novel anti-inflammatory medications. Recently, he has expanded his research to explore how traditional cigarette smoke and electronic cigarette vapour affect airway epithelial function. His laboratory is among one of the few worldwide capable of measuring real-time intracellular signalling events and ion transport activity in polarised epithelia simultaneously. This technically demanding approach is being employed to unravel novel molecular mechanisms underlying stimulus-secretion coupling in polarised epithelia.

With over a decade of experience as the College Dean of Students and the three past years as the University Dean of Students, Professor Ko is deeply committed to enhancing student services and fostering a supportive environment for students’ holistic development.

Professor Anthony So Man-cho re-appointed as Dean of the Graduate School

Professor Anthony So Man-cho joined CUHK’s Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management in 2007, and is currently the Dean of the Graduate School, Deputy Master of Morningside College and Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. He received his BSE degree in Computer Science from Princeton University, with minors in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Engineering and Management Systems, and German Language and Culture. He then received his MSc and PhD in Computer Science with a PhD minor in Mathematics from Stanford University.

His research focuses on optimisation theory and its applications in various areas of science and engineering. His work has earned him multiple accolades. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. He received the 2024 INFORMS Computing Society Prize, the SIAM Review SIGEST Award in 2024, the 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, the 2015 IEEE Signal Processing Society Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award, the 2014 IEEE Communications Society Asia-Pacific Outstanding Paper Award and the 2010 INFORMS Optimization Society Optimization Prize for Young Researchers.

He is also a passionate and caring educator. His innovative approach to teaching has brought him a range of recognition, including the 2022 University Grants Committee (UGC) Teaching Award (General Faculty Members Category), the 2022 University Education Award and the 2013 CUHK Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award.