Professor Yuk-Shan WONG, GBS, SBS, BBS, JP

Prof. Yuk-Shan Wong is the Chairman of Research Grants Council and Emeritus President of The Open University of Hong Kong (now Hong Kong Metropolitan University). Brought up and educated in Hong Kong, Professor Wong later obtained his PhD in Plant Biochemistry on Dean’s Honor List from McGill University of Canada in 1979. He was admitted as Fellow of Royal Society of Biology in the United Kingdom in 2006 and Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Science in 2009.

Prior to joining the Open University of Hong Kong, Professor Wong has been involved in various teaching, research and administrative work at a number of universities. Professor Wong was conferred as a Medical Research Council Fellow of Canada at the University of Toronto in 1979. Upon his return to Hong Kong in 1980, he joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and subsequently in 1985, the Chinese University of Hong Kong until 1988. In 1990, Professor Wong became one of the founding faculty members of the newly established Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where he was actively involved in setting up the curriculum and designing the new laboratory facilities of the institution. At HKUST, Professor Wong had directed numerous active research programmes in environmental biotechnology and in 1997, he was promoted to Associate Vice-President for Research and Development. He was then appointed as Vice-President for Institutional Advancement and Chair Professor of Biological Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong in 1998. In 2006, Professor Wong rejoined the HKUST as the Vice-President for Administration and Business to oversee the financial, personnel and infrastructural development of the university. During this period of time, Professor Wong has played a leading role in the design and construction work of some 10 buildings both on and off-campus to facilitate the rapid development of HKUST. He was also the project leader of a large-scale Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project which encompassed three major administrative information systems, namely student administration, finance and human resources.

Professor Wong’s research interests lie mainly in the areas of environmental biotechnology, plant biochemistry and mangrove conservation/utilization. He has pioneered a long-term collaborative research program on mangrove ecosystems in Hong Kong, which was participated by some 20 leading scientists from the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. Professor Wong also initiated the founding of the Futian-CityU Mangrove Research and Development Center in Shenzhen in 2003. 

Professor Wong has published or co-authored over 170 international journal articles, 8 books, and has supervised over 20 post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. Professor Wong has been appointed honorary/guest professor in a number of universities in China, including Nanjing University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Dr Sun Yat-Sen University, Xiamen University and Fujian Normal University. He was also a member of the Committee of Plant Molecular Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an advisor of the National Marine Open Laboratory at Xiamen University.  He was editor of three scientific journals.

In addition to scientific research, Professor Wong has been heavily involved in the policy-making of basic education and the development of local higher education system over the years. He had served as the Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council and a member of the Education Commission between 2001-07. He was a member of the University Grants Committee between 2005-11 and a member of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications from 2003 to 2007. Professor Wong is also actively contributing to many other public services. He was the Chairman of Wetland Advisory Committee between1998-04, Deputy Chairman of Advisory Council on the Environment between 2001-08, and the Chairman of the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Hong Kong between 2010-13. Professor Wong served as the Chairman of the Consumer Council for 6 years (2013-2018), the Standing Committee on Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service from 2017-2023, the Society of Hong Kong Scholars between 2017-2022 and the academic committee of Hong Kong Scholar Program.

Professor Wong is the 11th to 13th Hong Kong Deputy for the National People’s Congress of China. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee under the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and the Non-official Members of The Civil Service Training Advisory Board. 

He was also appointed Justice of the Peace (JP) and was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS), Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) and Gold Bauhinia Star (GBS) in 2001, 2004, 2018 and 2023 respectively.