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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has appointed Dr. Cheung Nim-kwan, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI), as Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Engineering effective 1 April 2009. His affiliation with CUHK will foster stronger R&D collaboration between CUHK and ASTRI. Being a world-renowned expert in communications technology, Dr. Cheung will play an important role in providing valuable advice to the Faculty of Engineering on the research direction in this important area.

Dr. Cheung obtained his B.Sc. (General) and B.Sc. (Special) degrees, both with first class honours, from The University of Hong Kong in 1969 and 1970 respectively. Later, he pursued further studies at the California Institute of Technology in the United States, where he received his Ph.D degree in Physics in 1976. He is a fellow of IEEE and Telcordia Technologies.

He joined Bell Laboratories upon his graduation to conduct pioneering research in innovative single-mode fiber optic systems. In 1984, he became the District Manager of Advanced Lightwave Technology in Bell Communications Research, where he created three world-class research programmes in high-speed, coherent, and subcarrier-multiplex lightwave systems. In 1999, Dr. Cheung became the Vice-President of Applied Research Government Programme in Telcordia Technologies. Under his leadership, the government-funded research programme portfolio grew at double-digit rates per year.

Since 2004, Dr. Cheung has been serving as a Consulting Professor in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has also served on the Electrical Engineering advisory boards of Columbia University, Polytechnic University of New York, and New Jersey Institute of Technology.

In 2006 and 2007, Dr. Cheung was the President of the IEEE Communications Society, an international professional organization with 45,000 members in 180 chapters around the world. After completing his term, he served as immediate Past President of the Society to provide assistance to the President. He has published over 150 journal publications, and has served in different editorial positions, including Editor-in-Chief of the renowned IEEE Communications Magazine.