Top Lingnan University scientist Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu elected Fellow of the 2023 National Academy of Inventors

Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Lingnan University's Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research) and Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence, has been elected as a 2023 class Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Prof Kwong is one of only two Hong Kong scholars to receive this prestigious recognition. The NAI Fellows Selection Committee chose Prof Kwong for induction for his spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. Prof Kwong will receive his medal at the NAI 13th Annual Meeting on 18 June 2024 in the US.

Prof Kwong is the first scholar at Lingnan University to receive this honour during his tenure, and Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science, also a Fellow, said, "Prof Kwong has not only received numerous accolades in the academic field, earning extensive industry recognition, but also demonstrated his leadership in the scientific community. Currently serving as the President of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMCS), his research has had a profound global impact, making him a consistently highly cited researcher worldwide. His election as NAI Fellow affirms his outstanding achievements and reflects Lingnan University's dedication and contributions to innovative scientific endeavours."

Prof Kwong said, “I am deeply honoured to be elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. This recognition not only reflects my individual accomplishments but also acknowledges the groundbreaking contributions of computational intelligence. In the face of the rapid technological advancements, computational intelligence plays a pivotal role across diverse fields and industries. I am committed to advancing my research in computational intelligence, delving into the limitless potential of this field, and making impactful contributions to society."

Prof Kwong's research project "Cross-modality interaction and remote perception theory and method for salient attribute mining" has won the Second Prize of the Natural Science Award of the 2023 Science and Technology Award of the China Society of Image and Graphics.

A pioneer in computational intelligence, significantly influencing evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, and image/video processing, Prof Kwong has received numerous international honours for his fundamental contributions to his profession, including being listed as one of the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, and named on the Clarivate list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2023”. He was named an IEEE Fellow in 2014 for his contributions to optimisation techniques in cybernetics and video coding. Prof Kwong became a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) in 2022, and was President of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMCS) in 2021-23. He has a prolific publication record with over 350 journal articles, and 160 conference papers with an h-index of 79 based on Google Scholar. Prof Kwong is currently associate editor of a number of leading IEEE transaction journals.

NAI Fellows is the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors. The 2023 Fellow class hails from 118 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide. They collectively hold more than 4,600 US patents. This year’s class includes 2 Nobel Laureates, 3 National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, 22 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and individuals holding other honours and distinctions as well as senior leadership from universities and research institutions.

The full list of the 2023 class of NAI Fellows is available here.

About the National Academy of Inventors

The National Academy of Inventors is a member organisation comprising US and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions. It was founded in 2010 to recognise and encourage inventors with patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.

Please visit the NAI website for more details: www.academyofinventors.org.