Named Research Centres, Endowed Professorships, and Academic Honours at HKU

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Comprehensive Information Database · 04 Research Module This article catalogues HKU's Endowed Professorships, named research centres and buildings, and academic honours including honorary degrees and Honorary University Fellowships. Named donors and recipients of academic honours are recorded by name in accordance with this repository’s conventions (00–12 Neutral Factual Zone); institutional, professorial, and building proper names are preserved.

# 1. Endowed Professorships

# 1.1 The Scheme

According to HKU Academic Development Office’s ‘Endowed Professorships’ page^※, an Endowed Professorship is one of the highest honours the University bestows upon its outstanding academics, supporting their research and scholarship. The scheme was launched in 2005 with an initial batch of 8 endowed professorships, a milestone in the University’s history; that page notes that 120 endowed professorships have been established to date.

Endowed professorships are typically named after the donor or a person the donor designates, and most are funded through a mechanism in which a donation is matched by the University to form a permanent endowment fund. For instance, according to a report from HKU’s Development & Alumni Affairs Office^※, the Tam Wah-Ching Professorship in Medical Science was established in October 2008, funded by a donation of HK$10 million from Dr Tam Wah-ching, which was matched by the University to create a permanent endowment of HK$20 million.

# 1.2 Selected Endowed Professorships

The table below presents a representative sample of HKU’s endowed/named professorships, drawn from HKU’s Endowed Professorships list^※ and individual professorship pages:

Named professorships span faculties and specialisms across the University. Further examples drawn from HKU’s Endowed Professorships list^※ include: the Cheng Yu-Tung Professorship in Finance（鄭裕彤金融教授席）, the Cheng Chan Lan Yue Professorship in Constitutional Law（憲法學教授席）, the Chan To-Haan Professorship in Urban Planning and Design（城市規劃與設計教授席）, the Andrew K F Lee Professorship in Architecture Design（建築設計教授席）, the Anthony and Anne Cheung Professorship in Innovative and Minimally Invasive Surgery（創新及微創外科教授席）, the Ada M F Chan Professorship in Oncological Pathology（腫瘤病理學教授席）, and the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Charity Foundation Professorship in Nursing（護理學教授席）. The names are generally linked to the donor or the person being memorialised, and they cut across disciplines—finance, law, architecture, surgery, nursing, pathology—illustrating the breadth of HKU’s endowed professorship landscape.

Note: The current or past holders of individual chairs change with appointments. This repository records only the naming and endowment of the professorship itself. For the scholar currently holding a chair, refer to the HKU Calendar and the relevant faculty/department pages (see HKU Calendar — Named Professorships^※). Historical or deceased scholars and donors are named in accordance with the facts; living scholars are named only in neutral or positive academic contexts.

# 2. Named Research Centres and Buildings

HKU has a large number of research centres, buildings, and facilities named after donors or in memory of individuals. Key examples, drawn from official sources, include:

• The Hong Kong Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research（香港賽馬會跨學科研究大樓）: Located on the Sassoon Road campus, it houses the Department of Chemistry, the State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry, and other interdisciplinary research facilities, according to the State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry page^※—a representative example of the ‘Jockey Club’ name supporting HKU’s research infrastructure.
• Laboratory for Synthetic Chemistry and Chemical Biology（合成化學及化學生物學實驗室）: One of the InnoHK centres under Health@InnoHK led by HKU (details in institutes-and-labs.md).
• Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine（李嘉誠醫學院）: HKU’s medical faculty was renamed in 2005 following a donation from the Li Ka Shing Foundation (details in ../11-medical-hospital/ and ../01-academics/).
• Centennial Campus（百週年校園） and named faculty buildings: For the naming of campus buildings and facilities, see ../05-campus/.

# 3. Honorary Degrees

HKU confers honorary degrees on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the University and to society. According to HKU’s Honorary Graduates page^※, degrees are awarded at the Congregation ceremonies. For example, as reported by Keynotes@HKU^※, at the 216th Congregation on 26 November 2025, the University conferred honorary doctorates on three distinguished individuals: Professor Gang Chen（陳剛）, Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung（李國章）, and Dr Patrick Poon Sun-cheong（潘燊昌）.

Note: HKU has awarded honorary degrees to a great many notable figures over its history; the full list and years are maintained on the official HKU Honorary Graduates page^※. This repository records only the mechanism and a recent example, and does not enumerate every cohort.

# 4. Honorary University Fellowships

According to public reports, HKU’s Honorary University Fellowships scheme was established in 1995 to recognise individuals who have made significant contributions to the University, academia, and Hong Kong. Based on the cumulative tally cited in an HKU press release^※, around 167 Honorary University Fellows had been awarded as of approximately 2022 (the precise cumulative figure is updated annually). Honorary University Fellowships differ from honorary degrees: the former emphasises service and contributions to the University community, while the latter emphasises scholarly or societal achievement.

Note: For the complete, cohort-by-cohort lists of Honorary Fellows and honorary degree recipients, refer to the official HKU pages (Honorary University Fellowships^※). This repository does not list each cohort, to avoid the information becoming stale.

# 5. Summary and Scope Limitations

• Securely sourced: The endowed professorship scheme (launched 2005, 120 chairs, matching mechanism), selected representative chairs, the named research building, and the mechanisms and recent examples for honorary degrees and fellowships—all are supported by official HKU pages.
• Cautious coverage: Current chair holders change with appointments, so only the professorship naming itself is recorded; cumulative figures for honorary degrees and fellowships are updated annually, so only summary notes are given.
• Not yet covered / deferred: A complete, itemised list of all 120 endowed professorships and their current holders has not been transcribed here (see the HKU Endowed Professorships list^※); for a full directory of named buildings, see ../05-campus/; for details on the naming of the medical faculty, see ../11-medical-hospital/.