Professor Way Kuo assumes presidency of CityU

 

Professor Way Kuo takes over the helm today (Wednesday, 14 May) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) as its fourth president.

 

He comes to the presidency with a distinguished career in tertiary education, administration and research. In coming to CityU, Professor Kuo relinquished his position as University Distinguished Professor and Dean of Engineering at the University of Tennessee. He was previously the Wisenbaker Chair of Engineering in Innovation and Executive Associate Dean of Engineering at Texas A&M University. For seven long years he was head of its Department of Industrial Engineering, which under his leadership was rated among the best in the US by US News & World Report.

 

More recently, he was elected a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the highest academic title in engineering science and technology in China. He was also elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering and Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He is also the recipient of the IEEE Reliability Life-time achievement Award.

 

A Fulbright Scholar in 1991, with a PhD in engineering from Kansas State University and a BS degree in nuclear engineering from National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan, Professor Kuo is no stranger to international scholarship.

 

His academic accolades include the Albert G Holzman Distinguished Educator Award, the Award for Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering, and the David F Baker Distinguished Research Award, demonstrating distinction in vital areas of higher education. A co-author of five textbooks, Professor Kuo is intimately knowledgeable about quality teaching in which he is well-known for favoring a higher education that is relevant to societal needs, and research that is problem-driven.

 

Professor Kuo’s stewardship of CityU comes at a critical juncture of its development. The University has embarked on an ambitious programme of physical expansion to accommodate the expected surge in undergraduate enrolment under the new 334 academic structure slated for 2012. Many important challenges await his leadership. High on his agenda is the enhancement of quality in both teaching and research. An increase in size, he believes, must be accompanied by an improvement in quality, with clear benchmarks for validation.

 

Determined to take CityU to the next level, Professor Kuo plans to do so by extensive internal

consultation and intensive external consultancy. To facilitate his dialogue with staff and students, Professor Kuo now keeps a teach-yourself-Cantonese book at his elbow. As for external consultancy, he has already assembled a star-studded team of international experts to advise him, even before he set foot in Hong Kong. CityU’s new leader is anxious to usher in a new era of innovation, quality and harmony. 

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CityU excels in professional education and applied research.

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For media enquiries, please contact Shirley Lam (3442 6803/ 9036 4294) of the Communications Office at City University of Hong Kong.