UM to hold the Ceremony for the Conferment of Honorary and Higher Degrees this Saturday

The University of Macau (UM) will hold the Ceremony for the Conferment of Honorary and Higher Degrees 2018 on 1 December (Saturday) at 4:00pm in the University Hall. At the ceremony, UM will confer honorary doctorates on Joseph Sung Jao-yiu, Anthony Lau Siu Wing, and Lao Ngai Leong. Higher degrees will also be presented at the ceremony. The honorary degrees for Wang Anyi and Aaron J Ciechanover will be conferred on a separate occasion.

Joseph Sung is a world-renowned scientist. His research studies have had a major impact on the practice of gastroenterology worldwide. He was hailed the ‘Asian Hero’ by Time magazine for his heroic fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) during its outbreak in 2003. He is a medical doctor extraordinaire and a renowned educationalist. He espouses educational ideals and he cleaves to them. He shepherds students with a sternness that accords with him aptly as an educationalist, but nevertheless is softened with an amicableness that draws him so close to the students.

A pioneer and veteran in the air cargo and logistics business, Anthony Lau has been closely following UM’s development. He once served as the chair of the University of Macau (Hong Kong) Alumni Association and took active part in various activities aimed at strengthening the bond among the university’s Hong Kong alumni. As an alumnus of UM, Lau has spared no effort to support the university’s development, as reflected in his donation to the University of Macau Development Foundation to support whole-person education at UM. He was also a member of the Honorary Advisory Board of UM’s Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management.

In addition to outstanding achievements in his career, Lao Ngai Leong has spared no effort to advance social causes and public service in many ways: participating in local politics, serving public organisations, and dedicating himself to education and charity. Having been serving for five terms as a Macao deputy to the National People’s Congress, the supreme organ of state power in China, Lao has made a positive contribution to the communication and collaboration between Macao and mainland China.

During the ceremony, more than 1,000 students of PhD degree programmes, master’s degree programmes, and postgraduate certificate/diploma programmes, from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Business Administration, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, and Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering will receive their graduation certificates.

In addition, the honoris causa lecture titled ‘Chinese-Language Literature in a Global Context’ to be delivered by Prof Wang Anyi on 3 December has been cancelled because of unforeseen circumstances. Updates on the talk will be announced in due course.