A Personal Perspective on Doing Good Research Seminar Series – Sharing by Prof William Hayward and Prof Leng Mingming
The third session of the A Personal Perspective on Doing Research Seminar Series for the 2025/26 academic year, organised by the School of Graduate Studies of Lingnan University, was held on 26 November 2025. It featured a stimulating talk titled How a Life in Hong Kong Shaped My Career as a Cognitive Scientist presented by Prof William Hayward, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Chair Professor of Psychology.
A leading scholar in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, whose distinguished career spans New Zealand and Hong Kong, Prof Hayward examines how people interpret the world through visual information, particularly faces, objects, and shifts of visual attention. By combining behavioural measures with neural activity measured through electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking, he and his team provide valuable information on how the human brain processes visual stimuli.
In his talk, Prof Hayward said how much his academic journey and personal experiences in Hong Kong have influenced his research direction and philosophy of science. He began by describing his research on face perception, including studies on “the other-race effect”, a mechanism involved in recognising faces among non-white groups. Drawing on examples from his work in Hong Kong and beyond, he illustrated how environmental and cultural factors shape visual attention and influence the way individuals perceive faces. He noted that his forthcoming RGC fellowship will further new investigations into face perception and cultural diversity in cognition.
Prof Hayward also drew a thought-provoking connection between his scientific interests and his passion for ultramarathon running, explaining how fatigue and endurance during long-distance races have made him appreciate cognition under stress, and how living and working in Hong Kong have enriched both his research and personal growth. He encourages young scholars to pursue their academic goals with curiosity and resilience, and to be open to new experiences.
Du Mukun, an MPhil student in Data Science, was impressed by Prof Hayward's ability to achieve outstanding results as an ultramarathon runner while also serving as Dean.
The fourth session of the A Personal Perspective on Doing Good Research Seminar Series was held on 22 January 2026. The seminar featured a thought-provoking talk titled “Multi-Player Allocations in the Presence of Diminishing Marginal Contributions: Cooperative Game Analysis and Applications in Management Science”, given by Prof Leng Mingming, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Chair Professor of Operations and Risk Management.
A leading scholar in operations management and cooperative game theory, Prof Leng holds a PhD in Management Science/System from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, Canada. His research brings together rigorous theoretical foundations with practical applications, and focuses on cooperative game theory, supply chain operations, and allocation problems in complex multi-player environments. Prof Leng has published extensively in top international journals, such as Management Science, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, IISE Transactions, and Naval Research Logistics. As well as his academic achievements, he brings valuable real-world insights from his five years of industry experience.
Prof Leng introduced the concept of almost diminishing marginal contributions (ADMC), and described how this can be applied to model and analyse multi-player allocation problems. He explained how cooperative game analysis can address fairness and efficiency in management science, bridging theory and practice with illustrative applications such as a code-sharing game, a group-buying game, and a scheduling profit game, which demonstrate how abstract game-theoretic insights can inform decision-making in management science and operations contexts, reinforcing the seminar series’ emphasis on research that is both methodologically robust and practically useful.
When asked during the Q&A session about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on his research, Prof Leng said that AI is becoming increasingly integrated into management science, and “reshapes business and education. We can use this technology to predict value and create a scheme. Research is the hallmark of business scholars, so we are exploring how to use AI in our theory to achieve better results.” He added that using data science will improve research outcomes in business studies.
Isaac Oware, a student from the Master of Social Sciences in Comparative Social Policy (International) programme, says that the seminar series organised by the School of Graduate Studies inspires students, and he plans to attend future sessions to gain insights into the differences between scholars’ academic and research disciplines.