LU establishes Asia’s first Catastrophic Risk Centre

LU has set up the Hong Kong Catastrophic Risk Centre to enable research and academic exchanges to address issues that arise from global risks, which, if recognised, could be prevented or at least mitigated.

 

Hosted by the LU Department of Philosophy, the new Centre is the first in Asia to address the risks of a catastrophe – from pandemics to climate change, nuclear war, engineered pathogens, and poorly implemented artificial intelligence – and seek to ensure that these risks are taken into consideration in rational and ethical discussion.

 

As well as producing rigorous research aimed at the academic community, the Centre provides expertise on matters related to global catastrophic risks to local governmental regulatory bodies, and can inform the general public, both locally and internationally, of related ethical issues.

 

The Centre’s strategic priorities will be formal partnerships with prestigious overseas institutions and research centres in the form of joint research projects, collaboration on papers, visiting appointments for both full-time academics and postgraduate students, and joint conferences and workshops, and also to foster collaboration with other departments and units at Lingnan.