Following in the footsteps of his late mentor, University of California Chancellor Chang-lin Tien, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) President Timothy Tong has been a prize-winning teacher, a pioneer in thermal engineering research and applications, and a leading academic administrator. Tong was born in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. to study mechanical engineering, earning a B.S. from Oregon State University and a M.S. and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, where he studied under Professor Tien. Tien “encouraged his students to study beyond classroom settings and explore new ways of doing things. Having benefited a lot from this approach, I feel obliged to be as innovative as him,” said Tong.
Innovation and dedication to bringing the real world to the academy have marked Tong’s academic career. At PolyU, where he became president only in 2009, he has set the University on a path to advance both its academic stature and its contributions to economic and social development in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. For example, Tong is increasing research and training in the new field of sustainable urban development, with flexible interdisciplinary degree programs for working professionals to master skills like the design and construction of energy efficient buildings. PolyU has a growing presence on the mainland as well, with a base in Shenzhen and cooperation with Pearl River Delta governments, for research and training in future-oriented fields, such as low carbon technology.
Before becoming PolyU President, Tong was Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the George Washington University (GW). His tenure at GW from 2000 to 2008 was notable for expanding research funding, establishing research and educational exchange partnerships with educational institutions all over the world, and in 2004, winning the remarkable distinction of awarding the highest percentage of engineering doctoral degrees to women of any school in the country. Just as he has done throughout his teaching career, at GW Tong nurtured entrepreneurship and practical experience, greatly increasing opportunities for student internship and establishing a Council on Entrepreneurial Technology Transfer and Commercialization to create an entrepreneurial culture among students, faculty and alumni.
In addition to Tong’s success as a teacher and administrator, he is a widely-published expert on heat transfer, a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the exchange of thermal energy from one physical system to another. Tong has many responsibilities outside the university, including serving as a Justice of Peace for the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and as a member of the Steering Committee on Innovation and Technology set up by the Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong Outstanding Students’ Association, and The Hong Kong Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
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