UM to confer honorary doctorates on four distinguished individuals

UM will confer honorary doctorates on four distinguished individuals, namely Academician He Jingtang, Professor Henry T. Yang, Doctor Ada Yonath, and Professor Binglin Zhong, in recognition of their outstanding achievements and significant contributions to society and education.

The Ceremony for the Conferment of Honorary and Higher Degrees 2017 will be held on 11 November (Saturday) at 4:00pm in the University Hall. At the ceremony, Academician He Jingtang and Professor Henry T. Yang will receive the Doctor of Science honoris causa degree. Professor Binglin Zhong will receive the Doctor of Education honoris causa degree. Higher degrees will also be presented at the ceremony. The Doctor of Science honoris causa degree for Doctor Ada Yonath will be conferred separately.

As one of those pivotal figures who undertake to promote traditional Chinese architecture, Academician He has a passion for the exquisite South China Lingnan architectural features which he has been working hard to preserve and sustain since the 60s of the last century. He secured his guru status in architecture when, on the back of traditional Lingnan aesthetics, he creatively formulated his own theoretical system. Signified by what is known as the ‘two concepts’ and ‘three characters’, the theory gave a shot in the arm for the Lingnan school of architecture.

Professor Yang is a world-renowned expert in structural engineering and the current chancellor of the University of California Santa Barbara. Apart from his brilliant academic achievements, Professor Yang is undoubtedly one of the great educationists in higher education of the United States. He is regarded as being in the same league as Charles Eliot, the president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909 who famously turned it into a top university in the world as we know it today.

Doctor Yonath shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A Steitz for their studies on the structure and function of ribosomes, which are the tiny particles made up of RNA and proteins. These ribosomes specialise in protein synthesis and are found free from or bound to the endoplasmic within cells.

Professor Zhong is a renowned educator with significant contributions to the development of higher education and scientific research. He is currently the president of the Chinese Society of Education, an honorary vice president at Cardiff University, and a professor at Beijing Normal University. Professor Zhong has also served as the director-general of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of China.