A Long Service Award Ceremony was held at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) on 7 November to honour and appreciate 237 dedicated long-serving staff for their longstanding commitment to the University.

The event was attended by Professor Freddy Boey, President of CityUHK; Professor Lee Chun-sing, Provost and Deputy President; Professor Kevin Downing, Secretary to Council; Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise); Professor Li Wenjung, Vice-President (Talent and International Strategy); Professor Chan Chi-hou, Vice-President (Community Engagement); Miss Maggie Chau Choi-ying, Vice-President (Administration); and Professor Anderson Shum Ho-cheung, Vice-President (Research).

President Boey congratulated the awardees and expressed his heartfelt gratitude for their contribution to CityUHK, witnessing the progress of CityUHK together. He shared the latest global rankings for CityUHK, noting that in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds Asia University Rankings 2025, CityUHK was ranked 10th in Asia, third in Hong Kong, and was among Asia's top 1% universities. The awarded staff have contributed to and witnessed the rapid growth of CityUHK in the world rankings. He also extended a sincere wish to the awardees for a happy life. 

Among the award recipients were six staff who have worked at CityUHK for 40 years, and 105 staff who worked for 30 to 35 years.  In addition, 12 staff received the award for 25 years’ service, and the remaining for 10, 15 or 20 years’ service.

Sharing their work experience at CityUHK at the ceremony were Professor Daniel Ho Wing-cheong, Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education) of the College of Science and Chair Professor of the Department of Mathematics, and Mr Szeto Wai-yin, Senior Technical Officer, Department of Electrical Engineering, both of whom have worked at CityUHK for more than 35 years.

Professor Ho joined CityUHK in 1989. He has been a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 2017 and is now a Life Fellow. He is also a Chang Jiang Chair Professor, awarded in 2012 by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. He has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate for 11 consecutive years since 2014 and was listed among the “World’s Top 2% Most-cited Scientists” (2020-2024) compiled by Stanford University. Professor Ho received the Teaching Excellence Award in 2020 for his dedication to teaching.

He believes that despite the changing times, the passion of many researchers at CityUHK remains unchanged. CityUHK has always been committed to nurturing researchers and scholars in Hong Kong and even globally. Professor Ho stated, “I believe CityUHK will continue to excel and maintain a leading role among universities.”

 

Mr Szeto is a senior technical officer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, serving mainly in the Computer and Signal Processing Lab, providing technical support. Mr Szeto is keen on sports and recalled learning how to swim when the CityUHK Swimming Pool opened. He still runs with like-minded colleagues. He has participated in the CityUHK Delegation of the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon for many years and was 3rd runner-up for the CityUHK team in the half marathon last year.

Mr Szeto said, “I am very grateful for having the opportunity to grow together with CityUHK, which has taught me how to interact with students and left me with many fond memories.”

 

After the ceremony, the attendees took the opportunity to talk about old times and take pictures with each other.