Dean of Engineering Professor Christopher Chao (right) received a cheque of donation from alumni representatives Mr Lionel Lau (left) and Professor T. S. Ng (middle) for establishing “S Y King Memorial Scholarship in Electrical & Electronic Engineering”.
Professor S.Y. King, the first Department Head of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), passed away in Vancouver on February 21, 2018. In respect to his legacy, Professor King’s students from all over the world made a donation of HK$1 million to establish “S Y King Memorial Scholarship in Electrical & Electronic Engineering”. Professor Christopher Chao, Dean of Engineering, received the cheque on behalf of the Faculty at the memorial event “Celebration of Life – To Professor S.Y. King with Love”. Professor Chao thanked the alumni for this meaningful donation and praised Professor King’s foresight in the global engineering trend which nurtured many visionary leaders in the engineering industry in Hong Kong, as well as in the world.
Professor King was a pre-war HKU electrical engineering graduate of 1940. He continued his postgraduate studies in the UK and was conferred a Diploma of Imperial College and a PhD by the University of London in 1947. After the war, he joined the Engineering Faculty at HKU in 1948 as an Assistant Lecturer and later served as Head of the Department. He became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 1954 to 1957 and he was the first Chinese and first HKU graduate to become a Dean in HKUi. When the Department of Electrical Engineering was re-established in 1960, he was promoted to Reader and appointed as the first Head of the Department until his retirement in 1980. Professor King served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of HKU from 1974 to 1977 and was conferred an Honorary Degree by the University in 1981.
For more details of the memorial event, please visit https://www.hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/18896.html.