The day that I arrived in London the existence of a new variant strain of COVID-19. Hong Kong then promptly banned travellers from the UK, and so I am stuck in London. I had expected a ten day visit to see family but it looks like I will be here until after Chinese New Year.…
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A year ago I was sitting in London for Christmas, it had been about a month since the protests in Hong Kong had hit the university campuses. This event had been much less serious at HKU than many of the other university campuses in Hong Kong, and I along with some colleagues perhaps played a…
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I have taken two weeks leave over Christmas and hope to be able to relax. It has been a year since I last took a break from work and I think that it is beginning to take a toll.
As I have reported on other occasions our marine centre at Cape d’Aguilar has been undergoing a major refurbishment and expansion. We now have a topping out date – 28th December. I visited the site this week to check it out myself and it is making good progress. The week was dominated by the closing…
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Teaching has now ended and so this is the time when it is convenient for me to have the town hall meetings with each department. These are agenda-free meetings where the Faculty Secretary and I respond to any questions that come up from the staff in the department. One thing that has always interested me…
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The last HKU-Chinese Academy of Science joint lab was set up ten years ago, but we now have a new one. The Institute of Oceanology CAS is partnering with SWIMS to establish a joint laboratory in marine ecology and environmental science. We signed the MOU in a ceremony on Tuesday. This is a great testament…
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Two events of note this week. The IUCA held an online press conference to mark the launch of its declaration to the G20, exerting them to commit to post-COVID investments that prioritised carbon reduction and climate change mitigation (/https://www.universitiesforclimate.org/announcement/). I was one of the people who helped draft this statement. Unfortunately, the event was ambushed…
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If variety is the spice of life then it was a spicy week. We finally had the feedback from the faculty review held in September. Some good commendations, including that the Faculty’s commitment to top-class research was impressive and demonstrated by the awards won by our staff. But naturally some work to do, especially in…
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As the annual cycle goes round we had our information day for the applicants interested in joining us in 2021 but, as so many things are at the moment, it was held online. Still it is good to see the year unfolding in the way it should even if we need to use new ways…
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It is always good to see people in the Faculty doing well. This week was the annual ceremony to honour those who have won various university awards for excellence. This year we had several winners: David Baker – outstanding young researcher; Pauline CHIU and Caroline Dingle both outstanding teaching awards; WK Ching – outstanding research…
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