澳大將向五位傑出人士頒授榮譽博士

澳大將向五位傑出人士頒授榮譽博士
UM to confer honorary doctorates on five distinguished individuals

澳門大學藉頒發榮譽博士學位，表彰擁有卓越成就及為社會發展和教育做出重大貢獻的傑出人士，下月將有三位諾貝爾奬得主羅伯特‧C‧默頓教授、楊振寧教授、莫言教授，以及兩位土木工程界鉅子李焯芬教授和邵賢偉工程師榮膺澳大榮譽博士。

學位頒授儀式定於十二月六日（星期六）上午十一時於澳大大學會堂舉行，屆時將頒授榮譽理學博士學位予李焯芬教授和邵賢偉工程師，榮譽工商管理博士學位予羅伯特‧C‧默頓教授，以及榮譽文學博士學位予莫言教授，而楊振寧教授的榮譽理學博士學位將另行頒授。

李焯芬教授為港大土木工程系講座教授，是著名地質及水利工程專家，中國工程院院士，曾參與內地多個核電站、大壩及基礎設施的建設，包括著名的三峽工程及二灘水電站工程。早在一九八零年代初，他便開始義務兼任中國水利部的高級顧問，經常要奔波各地，為祖國的大型水利工程作出奉獻。在港大服務多年的他，致力提升大學科研，推廣終身學習與推動與內地學界合作，並熱心於推動文化及服務社會，著有多本暢銷心靈勵志書籍。

羅伯特‧C‧默頓教授（Prof. Robert C. Merton）是美國經濟學家、一九九七年的諾貝爾經濟學獎得主，現為麻省理工學院斯隆管理學院金融學特聘教授、哈佛大學榮休教授，並在空間基金管理公司（Dimensional Fund Advisors）擔任常駐科學家，開發新一代的集成養老金管理解決系統，解決傳統界定福利計劃和界定供款計劃的缺陷。默頓教授以「將金融理論應用於實踐」而聞名，他的「期權定價理論」（Option Pricing Theory）對金融學和經濟學產生了深遠影響。

莫言教授是首位獲得諾貝爾文學獎的中國籍作家，他以豐富的創作帶領中國當代文學走向世界，使漢語在文學世界佔有一席重要位置。他在一九八零年代以一系列鄉土作品崛起，代表作之一《紅高粱》成為中國當代文學中新歷史小說的開山之作。二零一二年，莫教授因其作品「用幻覺現實主義將民間故事、歷史和當代融為一體」而獲得諾貝爾文學獎。至今已發表超過八十篇短篇小說，三十部中篇小說，十一部長篇小說，五部散文集，一套三卷本散文全集，並創作過九部影視文學劇本，以及兩部話劇作品。

在澳門土生土長的邵賢偉工程師在建築工程界有超過三十年的經驗，是行內富經驗且具專業認可資格的工程師。他曾寫過多篇具有參考價值及影響力的研討文章，對建築工程的學術發展頗有建樹。一九八零年代初，邵工程師在香港成立建築工程公司，業務發展致今已遍及大中華地區，參與設計的商住項目多不勝數，其中一澳門的酒店項目更獲香港工程師學會及英國結構工程師學會聯頒最佳結構設計大獎。此外，邵工程師一直關注教育發展及樂於為社會慈善團體作出捐獻，例如設立獎學金，捐助興建教學樓等。

為華人熟悉的楊振寧教授在一九五七年與研究伙伴合作推翻了被當時學界奉為真理的「宇稱守恆定律」，獲得諾貝爾物理學獎，成為首位華人諾貝爾獎得主，其後他任教於美國的大學。此外，楊教授與米爾斯教授於一九五四年建構了「楊米規範場理論」，該理論被公認為二十世紀最偉大的理論結構之一，改變了近幾十年來物理學發展的方向。楊振寧教授為多個國家科學學院的院士，獲奬無數。他多年來培育了許多傑出的物理學家，並對推動中國科學發展、人才培育作出了重大貢獻。

-------------------------------------------------

UM to confer honorary doctorates on five distinguished individuals

Every year, the University of Macau (UM) confers honorary doctorates on distinguished individuals with outstanding achievements and significant contributions to social development and education. This year, three Nobel Prize winners, namely Prof Robert C Merton, Prof Chen-Ning Franklin Yang, and Prof Mo Yan, as well as two distinguished individuals in the field of civil engineering, namely Prof Lee Chack Fan and Ir Siu Yin Wai, will receive honorary doctorates from UM.

The conferment ceremony will be held in UM’s University Hall at 11:00am on Saturday 6 December. Prof Lee Chack Fan and Ir Siu Yin Wai will receive the Degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa. Prof Robert C Merton will receive the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration honoris causa. Prof Mo Yan will receive the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa. The ceremony for conferring the Degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa upon Prof Chen-Ning Franklin Yang will be held separately.

Prof Lee Chack Fan is an honorary professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and an expert on geotechnical and hydraulic engineering. He has made significant contributions to the construction of nuclear power plants, dams, and infrastructure facilities in mainland China, including the famous Three Gorges Project and the Ertan Dam. In the early 1980s, Lee volunteered as a senior consultant to the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power of China. Thus trudging amid the hostile terrains of China, he began his long years of undertakings to serve his country in many of its hydraulic projects. He has taught at HKU for over 20 years, during which he strove for its research excellence and forged cooperation with the academia in mainland China. He is also actively involved in the promotion of culture and community service and is the author of a number of best-selling self-help books.

Prof Robert C Merton is an American economist and a Nobel laureate in economics in 1997. He is currently a distinguished professor of finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Sloan School of Management and a professor emeritus of Harvard University. He is also resident scientist at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where he developed a next-generation integrated pension-management solution system that addressed deficiencies associated with traditional defined-benefit and defined-contribution plans. Prof Merton is noted for putting finance theories into practice and has re-shaped the world of finance and economics with his Option Pricing Theory.

Prof Mo Yan is the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He played an important role in inducting contemporary Chinese literature in the world’s literary Hall of Fame. In the mid-1980s, Mo became noted for having written a corpus of in-search-of-roots works with infusions of the raw rural culture. His 1986 novel Red Sorghum Clan was the first neo-historical novel in modern Chinese Literature. In 2012, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his ability to merge “hallucinatory realism” with “folk tales, history and the contemporary” in his work. He has published more than 80 short stories, 30 novellas, 11 novels, 9 scripts for TV dramas and films, 2 plays, as well as 5 essay collections which were later re-published in three complete volumes.

Ir Siu Yin Wai is a native of Macao and has been a practicing engineer for over 30 years. He obtained engineering qualifications from different places and has written many influential papers on engineering. At the beginning of 1980, Siu set up his firm in Hong Kong. With his talents and diligence, he has become a top engineer in the Greater China region. Ir Siu was commissioned for many famed projects of luxurious estates and commercial centres and has received the Structural Excellence Award from the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and the Institution of Structural Engineers for a hotel construction project in Macao. Apart from the above accomplishments, Ir Siu has always concerned himself with education and performed many philanthropic deeds, including the establishment of scholarships and donations to various institutions.

Prof Chen-Ning Franklin Yang received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 jointly with his research partner for their work in disproving the “parity laws”, which were taken as the golden rules by physicists at that time. He and his partner were the first two Chinese to win the Nobel Prize. His Yang-Mills theory is another achievement of great significance. The theory is considered one of the greatest theories of modern physics in the 20th century. Prof Yang has been elected a fellow of national science academies in many countries. He has won numerous awards and has made significant contributions to China’s development in the various aspects of science education.