Prof Chia-Wei WOO, founding President of the University, retired on 30 June 2001. The Council appointed distinguished physicist and world-renowned expert in superconductivity, Prof Paul Ching-Wu CHU, as Prof Woo's successor, effective
1 July 2001.

The year under review also saw the retirement of Prof Leroy CHANG, Vice-President for Academic Affairs (VP-AA) on 14 August 2000. Former VP-AA and Professor of Biology, Shain-Dow KUNG, was appointed Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs from 15 August to 31 December 2000. Subsequently, the Council appointed Prof Yuk-Shee CHAN as Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs.

Other appointments to senior academic staff positions during the year include:

Prof Kang L WANG, Dean of Engineering
Prof K C CHAN, Acting Dean of Business and Management
Prof Gerald GORN, Head of the Department of Marketing
Prof H Benjamin PENG, Head of the Department of Biology
Prof Nancy IP, Head of the Department of Biochemistry
Prof Larry J L FARTH, Head of the Department of Management of Organizations
Prof John K C WEI, Acting Head of the Department of Finance

The University took additional measures to reduce salary expenditure during the year, due to the significant reduction in government funding. The freeze remained on the recruitment of non-teaching staff, while the Council introduced a Voluntary Redundancy Scheme for non-teaching staff on superannuation terms in March 2001. A total of 99 applications were approved under the Scheme, bringing the University a net savings of HK$68 million for the triennium 2001/04.

Noteworthy Academic Achievements
Many HKUST faculty members earned recognition from academic and professional institutions this year. Among them were:

• Prof Otto LIN, Vice-President for Research and Development, and Prof Ping SHENG, Head of the Department of Physics, became the first scientists from Hong Kong to be elected Members of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials.
  
  
• Dr Tai Kai NG, Associate Professor of the Department of Physics, was elected a Fellow of the prestigious American Physical Society.
  
  
• Prof Kei May LAU and Associate Professor Bertram SHI of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department were elected Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
  Dr Shi is one of the youngest researchers to receive this honor.
  
  
• Dr Yung-Hou WONG, Associate Professor of the Department of Biochemistry, received a Croucher Senior Research Fellowship.
  
  
• Dr Che Ting CHAN, Associate Professor of the Department of Physics, received the 2000 Achievement in Asia Award from the Overseas Chinese Physics Association.
  
  
• Associate Professor Kin-Man LEE of the Department of Civil Engineering and his research team received the Thomas A Middlebrooks Award for their paper "Effects of placement method on geotechnical behavior of hydraulic fill sands". Dr Lee's team is only one of two non-US research groups to have received the award, established by the American Society of Civil Engineers, in its 45-year history.
  
  
• Prof Justin LIN of the Department of Economics authored the article "Rural reforms and agricultural growth in China" published in the American Economic Review, named by ISI Thomson Scientific, a citation survey organization, as one of the 47 high impact papers in China. His book Institution, Technology, and China's Agricultural Development, II won the First Prize of the Sixth Beijing Municipality's Philosophy and Social Science High Quality Research Publication Award.
  
  
• The article "Japanese precious wood and the paradoxes of added values" co-authored by Dr Jerry PATCHELL, Assistant Professor of the Division of Social Science, and Prof Roger HAYTER won the Wrigley-Fairchild Award from the Council of the American Geographical Society.
  Dr Ying Yi HONG of the same Division received the 2001 Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award for her paper on intercultural cognitive psychology. The Award is given by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.