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Six graduates from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received the Croucher Scholarships and Fellowships for further studies at prestigious institutions in the US and Europe this year. They attended the University of California, San Francisco, Imperial College London, the University of California, Berkeley, the Berlin Mathematical School and the University of Cambridge.

Mr Lam Ka-kit, who graduated from CUHK with first class honours in mathematics and information engineering in 2011, has been admitted to the University of California, Berkeley to pursue a PhD in engineering. Ka-kit said, 'I am glad to receive the scholarship and would like to thank the Croucher Foundation for the valuable support which has enabled so many students to further their studies and research. I hope that I, as well as all other scholarship recipients, will do good research to benefit society in future.'


During his undergraduate studies at CUHK, Ka-kit received a number of different awards. He won the HKSAR Government Scholarship and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarship. For research, he obtained the Caltech-Hong Kong Undergraduate Research Fellowship in 2009 to carry out a summer research project at Caltech; he was also one of the recipients of the first Professor Charles K. Kao Research Exchange Scholarships 2009–10, which allowed him to attend a research exchange programme at MIT in 2010.

Seven recipients of the Professor Charles K. Kao Research Exchange Scholarships 2010-11 from physics and engineering had the opportunity to meet Professor Kao earlier, as part of the activities associated with the awards. The Scholarships enabled them to travel to and stay at various renowned institutions during last summer, and to participate in research work there. These institutions included MIT, the University of California, Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

One of the recipients, a year three Physics student, Mr Adrian Po Hoi-chun, said, 'I truly admire Professor Kao not just for his academic achievement, but also for his vision and perseverance in promoting “future technology” that was, at the time, not particularly well received by his contemporaries. The scholarship has encouraged me to pursue my aspiration as a researcher, and also reminded me of the importance of having a dream and the perseverance to pursue the dream.' 

During his internship at the University of California, Berkeley, Adrian had a setback that taught him a lesson. He and his supervisor realized that their original research plan to use a simple model to explain the transition of subjects at different phases was not going to yield fruitful results after working on it for a month. However, this had not discouraged Adrian but allowed him to get a taste of real-life research experience and learn a lot through studying the topic.

Apart from valuable research experience, Adrian also benefited from the experience of cultural exchange gained as part of the programme. Adrian recalled, 'I rented a unit in a house owned by an elderly couple who were strongly against “nuke”. They had hesitation in renting the unit to me initially when they knewI was doing physics research. After I clarified that my research was about solid state physics, they eventually agreed to rent the unit to me. After moving in, I got many chances to exchange views with the couple on technological advancement, social development and cultural differences. They also shared with me their life experience, like driving all the way to Alaska as a salesperson to sell household cleaning products and protesting against weapon production during the Vietnam War. It was a very enjoyable and fruitful experience to converse with them.' 

A year four mainland student in electronic engineering, Miss Wei Xiaoyao said, 'I've benefited a lot from the scholarship. Without it I could not have been able to finance the travelling expense to Imperial College London, nor the living expenses in London for two months. I am grateful to CUHK and Professor Kao for providing me with the precious opportunity to have research experience in a top university.' Xiaoyao is also one of the recipients of the Professor Charles K. Kao Student Creativity Awards 2010/11 with her innovative project 'Nutrition Label Analyzer', which was an award-winning entry in the 12^th Challenge Cup.