Professor Philippe G. Ciarlet, University Distinguished Professor in the College of Science, and Professor Tai-Chu Lau, Chair Professor of Department of Chemistry, have been conferred the title of Emeritus Professor upon retirement on 1 July 2022 in recognition of their distinguished contributions to education, research and professional services during their service at the University.
Since joining CityU in 2002, Professor Ciarlet has made an immense contribution to the development of the University. As an internationally renowned mathematician, Professor Ciarlet has contributed enormously for his work on the finite element method and his fundamental contributions to elasticity theory, plate theory, shell theory, and applied differential geometry. According to the latest report issued by Stanford University, Professor Ciarlet is listed in the top 0.17% of the most highly cited scientists without self-citations in the field “General Mathematics”. He has received numerous prestigious honors for his notable achievements over the years, including an Officer in the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France, which is the highest accolade given to individuals of significant contributions in his native country, and fellowships of nine world-renowned academies.
Professor Lau is a distinguished chemist specialising in the reactivity of transition metal oxo, nitride and imido complexes; photocatalytic water splitting, and CO2 reduction by transition metal complexes. During his 34 years of service at CityU, Professor Lau has made tremendous contributions encompassing education, research and professional services. He has played an important role in establishing and developing the State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution (SKLMP), and the Centre for Marine Environmental Research and Innovative Technology (MERIT) under the Area of Excellence (AoE) Scheme. As one of the founding members of the department, he developed the programme curriculum for BSc in Applied Chemistry and curated a series of courses; trained 44 PhD, 9 MPhil graduates, and 100 BSc students for their final year projects; solicited over 70 research grants as Principal Invigilator (totaling HK$60 million); and served as the Acting Head of the department (2015 – 2016).