Nearly two hundred and ten scholars from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) were named among the “World’s Top 2% Most-cited Scientists”. Compared to the overall number of teaching and research staff at the University, this is the highest proportion of top scientists in Hong Kong, demonstrating the University’s exceptional research capabilities. The research achievements of these scholars are widely cited by their peers and internationally recognised.

Among those listed are Professor Freddy Boey, President of CityUHK; Professor Lee Chun-sing, Provost and Deputy President; Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise); Professor Chan Chi-hou, Vice-President (Community Engagement); and Professor Anderson Shum, Vice-President (Research).

If ranked by overall scores, Professor Zhang Hua, Herman Hu Chair Professor of Nanomaterials, has the highest global ranking among scientists in Hong Kong. Additionally, twenty-eight CityUHK scholars were ranked among the top 100 in their respective academic fields globally, and 14 scholars were ranked among the top 50. By College/School, the College of Engineering ranked first, with 113 scholars listed among the “World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists”. Professor Chen Guanrong, Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Professor Liew Kim-meow, Yeung King Man Chair Professor of Sustainable Engineering, were ranked 7th and 8th globally, respectively. The College of Science had 27 scholars on the list, and the newly established College of Computing had 20 scholars named among the “World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists”.

President Boey congratulated all the scholars and expressed pride in the University’s numerous outstanding scholars and remarkable research achievements. “The achievements of CityUHK scholars reflect the University’s encouragement of innovation and excellence in research,” he said. “Their projects are widely recognised by their peers, and they are dedicated to serving society and benefiting the public and have had a profound impact.”

Additionally, 32 distinguished CityUHK scholars have been awarded funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for 2024, and 28 scholars were named Highly Cited Researchers for 2023 by Clarivate. Based on the ratio of teaching and research staff to the number of recipients of this honour, CityUHK was again ranked first in Hong Kong. This year, CityUHK topped local institutions for the 8th consecutive year in the prestigious Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted US Utility Patents.

In 2023, CityUHK launched the “Distinguished Visiting Professors Scheme” and has since invited 25 renowned scholars to visit CityUHK and collaborate with faculty and students to promote interdisciplinary scientific and academic research. These 25 Distinguished Visiting Professors hail from prestigious institutions, such as ETH Zürich, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore, University College London, University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.

The list of the “World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists” is compiled by a research team from Stanford University. It ranks scholars based on key data from Scopus, the world’s largest abstract and citation database, covering 22 academic fields and 174 sub-fields. The rankings are based on the number of citations of scholars’ academic publications, considering both career-long impact and single-year impact for 2023.