Lingnan University to confer honorary doctorates upon four distinguished individuals

Mr Warren Chan Chee-hoi, QC, SC

Mr Warren Chan Chee-hoi graduated from The University of Hong Kong with an LLB (Hons) in 1977 and a PCLL in 1978. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar in the same year, and to the Bar in England five years later. Subsequently, Mr Chan was also admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Victoria (Australia), the Supreme Court of Singapore and the State of New York (USA). In 1994, he was further appointed Queen’s Counsel, renamed Senior Counsel in 1997. His distinguished practice has gained high repute over the years, and his earnest guidance of younger professionals has earned deep respect within the legal profession.

Mr Chan sees law as a matter for the populace rather than a privilege of the minority. He hopes to see more law firms move into grass roots districts, providing affordable legal services for the common people. He strongly believes that both Hong Kong and mainland China need to train more high-quality lawyers, and is very concerned about developments related to the rule of law and legal education in Hong Kong and China; he sees full establishment of the rule of law and enhancement of the quality of legal education as the biggest challenges in China’s move to modernization. Over the years, Mr Chan’s devotion to the enhancement of legal education in Hong Kong and China has made him an exemplary professional widely praised by the legal community. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by The University of Hong Kong in 2004, and by The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2013.

A world authority in sociology, Prof Lord Giddens is not only a highly influential modern social theorist but also a polymath. He started his academic career at the University of Leicester and subsequently the University of Cambridge. From 1997 to 2003 he became the Director of the highly prestigious London School of Economics. He was also a cofounder of Polity Press, one of the world’s most reputable publishers especially in sociology and social theory. He continues to devote his time and energy on public service and has served on the boards and committees of various public organisations, including the Institute of Public Policy Research.

Prof Giddens is the author or editor of over 40 books, which have been translated into over 40 different languages. His famous Sociology textbook has sold over one million copies and he is regarded as one of the most widely cited sociologists of our age. Prof Giddens has written with an interdisciplinary approach on a wide range of subjects and a number of far-reaching theoretical models, including theoretical and methodological re-examination of the role of sociology, social structures and “Structuration Theory”, modernity, relationship between the self and society, globalisation, as well as politics.

Dr Anthony Francis Neoh’s multiple areas of service, ranging from public, legal and business to academic, have earned him extraordinary recognition and respect both within and beyond the territory. Dr Neoh embarked on his successful career as a civil servant and in 1979, he commenced practising at the Hong Kong Bar. His legal practice soon took on an international dimension when he practised as a Member of the California Bar, having been admitted in 1984. He returned to full time practice at the Hong Kong Bar in 1986, and in 1990 he was appointed Queen’s Counsel (now retitled Senior Counsel). His legal practice covers a wide spectrum of private and public law matters and he is especially known for dealing with international investment disputes in international arbitration.

Dr Neoh has served on various public boards and committees over the years including the Chairman for the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, the first Asian elected to be the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Chief Advisor to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a member of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Committee, and a member on the Panel of Conciliators and Arbitrators of the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He has shown continuing support and passion for education and has held various adjunct, honorary and visiting professorial appointments in many prestigious universities including Harvard University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, Zhejiang University and Zhongshan University. He was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws by The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003, and the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Social Sciences by The Open University of Hong Kong in 2013.

Prof Yang’s contribution to nuclear physics research and its applications is widely esteemed by the scientific community. He was selected to go to the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 1963 to further his work in nuclear physics, specialising in nuclear spectroscopy. His research confirming a type of single particle motion in nuclei at that time is still widely cited by the international nuclear physics community. Prof Yang resumed his teaching and nuclear physics research at Fudan University in 1965, and turned his focus to the advancement of nuclear physics in China: the nation’s first accelerator-based atomic and nuclear physics laboratory was built under his persistent effort and leadership. He later served as Director of the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research (now called Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On account of his distinguished and ground-breaking achievement in nuclear physics research, Prof Yang was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991, and a fellow of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in the same year.

He was appointed Vice-President of Fudan in 1992 and in 1993, he was installed as President of Fudan, and led the University during his six-year tenure to become a high-quality, people-oriented university that excels in both the humanities and the sciences. In 2001, Prof Yang was appointed Chancellor of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. In 2004, Prof Yang led Nottingham to establish the University of Nottingham Ningbo — China’s first Sino-foreign collaborative university with full pedagogical independence granted to the foreign partner.