Department of Biochemistry
History & Development
Established in 1971, the Biochemistry Department is now one of the largest departments in the University. Prof Ma Lin, who later became the second Vice-Chancellor of CUHK in 1978, was appointed as the first Department Chairman; and in the same year, the first batch of MPhil of students were admitted to the Department. The PhD programme was launched in 1984. With funding from the Croucher Foundation, the Department established the Biotechnology Laboratory in 1986, which is currently one of the hottest research areas in the world.
Major Research Areas
• Genomics and Bioinformatics Projects
• Cellular Biochemistry and Cell Biology Projects
• Chinese Medicine and Natural Products Projects
• Biotechnology and Protein Engineering Projects
• Environmental and nutritional projects
Department of Biology
History & Development
When The Chinese University of Hong Kong was established in October 1963, the two individual Departments of Biology under Chung Chi College and New Asia College continued to function as two separate units. Each Department had its own chairman, responsible for its administrative and academic affairs. The two chairmen reported to the Director of the Board of Studies in Biology, who was the Head of the two Departments. When the Science Centre building was completed in September 1972, the two Biology Departments moved into the same premises and subsequently merged into a single Department of Biology. Presently there are 19 Professors (Assistant, Associate, Full, and Professor of Biology), two Instructors, two Honorary Senior Research Fellows, 25 researchers (Research Assistants, Research Associates, Post-doctoral Fellows), and a supporting staff team of 32 plus 4 office personnel in the Department of Biology.
Major Research Areas
• Plant and Fungal Biotechnology
• Marine Biotechnology
• Microbiology/Microbial Biotechnology
• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) / Natural Products / Health
• Sytematics
• Physiology
• Marine Biology
• Environmental Biology / Ecology
• Food Sciences
Department of Chemistry
History & Development
The Department of Chemistry is one of the founding departments in the University and remains as a large and well-equipped academic unit. Over the past four decades, a remarkable progress has been made in many aspects. Currently, the Department has about 20 faculty members actively engaged in quality teaching and research in virtually all branches of frontier chemistry. On the faculty, there are three members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one fellow of the American Physical Society, six fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry, three Croucher Senior Research Fellows and a former Industrial Chair Professor. Six members are on either the Editorial or Advisory Board of national and international journals.
Major Research Areas
• Analytical Chemistry
• Crystal Engineering and Chemical Crystallography
• Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry
• Physical and Biophysical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry and Physics
• Organic Synthesis
• Organometallic Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
Department of Mathematics
History & Development
The Mathematics Department was founded with the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963. It was a coalition of the three small departments in Chung Chi, New Asia and United College which existed long before this. The most significant development of the new Department was the recruitment of two young enthusiastic fresh Ph.D.s, Drs K.F. Ng and Y.C. Wong from Wales. They set up a small but highly dedicated seminar group on Partially Ordered Banach Spaces and Convex Analysis. Some of the participants subsequently became leaders in the mathematics community: Yau Shing Tung, Lau Ka Sing, Cheng Shiu Yuen, and Chu Cho Ho. During the sixties and seventies, the Department was noted for its research in Functional Analysis due to the efforts of Dr. Ng and Dr. Wong. Another important development was the statistics group headed by Prof. Chan Nai Ng, who formed a new Statistics Department in the eighties.
Major Research Areas
• Algebra and Algebraic Geometry
• Analysis and Optimization Theory
• Geometric Analysis and Partial Differential Equations
• Numerical Analysis and Fluid Dynamics
Department of Physics
History & Development
The history of the Department of Physics can be traced back to the pre-university years when the three foundation colleges introduced their diploma programmes of physics as early as 1956.
With the founding of the University in 1963, the degree programme was introduced and steadily consolidated with increasing manpower and resources. The first batch of BSc students graduated in 1964, and the teaching and learning activities were greatly enhanced by the gradual integration of teaching through the inter-collegiate teaching scheme introduced in 1965. The most important advancement was realized in 1972 when all the staff and facilities, originally stationed in the three colleges at different locations, were brought together and centralized at the present Shatin campus. Training of research graduate students at the MPhil level in physics began in 1972. Subsequently, the PhD programme in physics was introduced in 1981.
Major Research Areas
• Computational Physics
• Design, Synthesis and Characterization of Composite Materials
• Electrodynamics/Plasma Physics
• Gravitational Waves
• Growth of Artificially Structured Semiconductor Materials and
their Optical Properties
• Ion Beam Techniques in Materials Synthesis, Processing and Characterization
• Mie Scattering and Photorefractive Effects
• Model Study of Fracture and Fragmentation
• Nanostructures
• Nonlinear Optics
• Novel Laser Media and Laser Systems
• Physics of Thin Films
• Relativity and Astrophysics
• Surface Science and Surface Analysis
• Theoretical Studies of Bubble Dynamics
• Theoretical Studies of Condensed Matter Physics
• Theoretical Studies of Optics
• Theoretical Studies of Particle Physics
• Thermoluminescence
• Turbulence and Complex Fluids
• Undercooled Liquids and Glass Formation and nanograin formation
Department of Statistics
History & Development
Stimulated by public awareness of the wide applications of statistics, the Department of Statistics was established in 1982. Since its inception, the Department has experienced sustained and vigorous growth in different directions, keeping pace with the increasing demand of the community.
When the Department of Statistics came into being in 1982, only the BSc and MPhil programmes in Statistics were offered. In early 90's, the Ph.D. programme in Statistics was inaugurated. In recent years, the Department launched a B.Sc. programme in Risk Management Science (RMS) in 2000, a M.Phil. programme in RMS in 2002, and a M.Sc. programme in RMS in 2003.
Major Research Areas
• Computational biology
• Computational intensive methods
• Data mining
• Financial time series
• Nonparametric modeling
• Risk management, financial economics
• Structural equation models
• Survival analysis
• Other researches in social sciences
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