Interdisciplinary Research Institutes — Emerging Markets, Smart Cities, and Nanoscience

Beyond the "star" institutions in HKUST's research-institute matrix — the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), the von Neumann Institute (VNI), and the Cheng Yu-tung Robotics Institute (covered in Key Laboratories and Research Institutes (Part 1)^※ and Robotics and AI^※) — sits a second tier of interdisciplinary units focused on specific domains. This article sets four of them side by side: the Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS), which studies economic policy; the GREAT Smart Cities Institute, which studies the city at macro scale; the William Mong Institute of Nano Science and Technology, which studies matter at micro scale; and the Nanosystem Fabrication Facility (NFF), which gives nanoscale research its physical machining capability. One grand, one minute — together they trace the full range of scales across which HKUST's research ambition runs.

# 1. Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS): a policy think tank for emerging markets

The Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS) is an interdisciplinary, think-tank-style unit at HKUST devoted to research on emerging markets. Its core themes — urbanisation, structural change, employment, labour markets, the development of emerging economies — are among the most dynamic and most challenging areas of the 21st-century global economy.

One of IEMS's key research outputs is its working paper series (IEMS Working Paper Series), indexed in IDEAS/RePEc^※, the widely used economics database. The Institute also runs a steady calendar of conferences and public lectures on emerging-market topics. This "papers + conferences + public lectures" model is the classic policy think tank — producing academic research while speaking to the public and to policymakers. For a university in Hong Kong, facing the Greater Bay Area and Asia, a dedicated institute for emerging markets has an internal logic: Hong Kong is itself the hinge between mature and emerging markets, and mainland China and much of Asia are precisely the world's most important emerging markets.

# Sir Christopher Pissarides: HKUST's first Nobel-laureate professor

IEMS's most distinguished associated name is Sir Christopher Pissarides. According to HKUST News^※ and the IAS page^※, Pissarides is a 2010 Nobel laureate in economic sciences^※, sharing the prize with Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Mortensen of Northwestern University for their "analysis of markets with search frictions"^※. His expertise lies in unemployment economics, labour market theory and policy, and, more recently, growth and structural change^※ — themes that align almost exactly with IEMS's focus.

His place at HKUST is the most consequential fact to record. According to the IAS page^※, Pissarides was the first Nobel laureate professor recruited by HKUST^※. He holds multiple roles at the University: IAS Helmut & Anna Pao Sohmen Professor-at-Large and Regius Professor of Economics at HKUST^※, while also serving as a Faculty Associate of IEMS; he continues to hold a professorship in economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). According to the IEMS page^※, he takes an active part in the Institute's activities, chairing and participating in conferences and public lectures on emerging-market topics (such as a lecture on the Greek crisis and the future of the eurozone^※).

Note: Pissarides is a living scholar, and his academic distinctions (the Nobel Prize, his chaired professorships) are neutral, positive matters of record. This archive records them faithfully according to public sources, using his full name (in contrast to the anonymisation applied to controversial figures elsewhere on this site).

Recruiting a Nobel laureate as a chaired professor means several things for HKUST. Hard currency of reputation — the Nobel Prize is the ultimate credential in academic prestige, and HKUST's ability to attract its first Nobel-laureate professor signals international recognition of its scholarly standing; that it happened in economics, a field where HKUST was not traditionally strong, makes it more striking still. IAS–IEMS synergy — Pissarides is affiliated with both IAS (the Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study; see Key Laboratories and Research Institutes (Part 1)^※) and IEMS, embodying HKUST's approach of "connecting interdisciplinary platforms through top scholars." International endorsement for economics — for a university known for science and engineering, Pissarides's presence gives its economics and business programmes (see Deep Dive: School of Business and Management^※) an international seal of academic credibility.

Note: The roles, awards and titles described here are as stated in the source pages at the time of writing and are time-sensitive; appointments and affiliations change, so please check HKUST's latest official announcements before citing.

# 2. GREAT Smart Cities Institute: studying the city at macro scale

The name of the GREAT Smart Cities Institute (GSCI) is itself a statement of philosophy. According to the Institute's vision page^※, "GREAT" stands for the five attributes of a smart city: Green, Resilient, Empowering, Adaptable and Transformative^※. The Institute's goal is to become a global leader in smart-city research and education, and to make Hong Kong a "model city."

According to the Institute's page^※, GSCI's research spans smart infrastructure and transportation, smart buildings, smart energy-storage systems, smart air-quality control, and autonomous driving and IoT technologies^※, while also advancing foundational enabling technologies such as intelligent sensing, artificial intelligence, big-data analytics and next-generation connectivity^※. This research map pulls together HKUST's capabilities in AI, the Internet of Things and autonomous driving under the single macro-level application of the "smart city." For a high-density, fast-growing urban cluster like Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, smart-city research has immediate practical relevance — and it speaks to HKUST's strength in SDG 11, "Sustainable Cities and Communities" (see Impact Rankings and SDGs^※).

GSCI is also deeply involved in building a sustainable campus, a fact worth recording. According to Institute materials^※, the "Sustainable Smart Campus" initiative is co-led by the GREAT Smart Cities Institute and the Sustainability/Net-Zero Office^※. In effect, HKUST treats its entire Clear Water Bay campus as a "living laboratory" for smart-city research — the campus's smart-energy, smart-building and foot-traffic-monitoring projects (see Green Campus^※) are at once carbon-reduction practice and real test beds for GSCI research. An institute that studies cities, studying its own campus as a miniature city first: this closed loop is the "campus as a living lab" idea in action.

# 3. William Mong Institute of Nano Science and Technology: studying matter at micro scale

Where GSCI looks at the city from above, the William Mong Institute of Nano Science and Technology (WMINST) studies matter at the "micro scale."

According to the Institute's introduction^※, its predecessor, the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), was established at HKUST in 2001, with Professor Ping Sheng as founding director, to coordinate and promote nanoscale science research^※. On 1 February 2008, the Institute was renamed the William Mong Institute of Nano Science and Technology in recognition of a donation from Dr. William Mong^※. Founding director Professor Ping Sheng was a key figure behind one of HKUST's landmark achievements, the creation of the world's thinnest carbon nanotube (in 2000, at a diameter of just 0.4 nanometres; see HKUST "Firsts" and Major Breakthroughs^※). That a leading figure in nanoscience founded and led the Institute placed WMINST at the field's frontier from day one.

According to Institute materials^※, WMINST supports and promotes numerous nano-science and nano-technology research projects at HKUST, playing an important role in fostering collaborative research programmes within and beyond the University and in securing external research funding^※. It works in tandem with HKUST's nanofabrication hardware — the Nanosystem Fabrication Facility (NFF, covered in the next section): WMINST supplies the academic coordination and collaborative platform, NFF provides the physical processing capability, and together they underpin HKUST's research in nanoscience.

# 4. Nanosystem Fabrication Facility (NFF): Hong Kong's first academic nanofabrication workshop

At a moment when chips and semiconductors have become the focus of global technological competition, whether a university possesses its own nanofabrication and microelectronics manufacturing capability is a key indicator of hard-technology strength. HKUST's Nanosystem Fabrication Facility (NFF) is precisely such a formidable piece of infrastructure.

# Standing: the first nanofabrication laboratory in a Hong Kong institution of higher education since 1991

According to HKUST materials, the NFF is the first nanofabrication laboratory established in a tertiary institution in Hong Kong since 1991^※, with the mission of providing fabrication facilities for research and teaching on micro/nano devices and systems^※. The phrase "first since 1991" carries weight — 1991 is the year HKUST itself was founded. In other words, the University began building this hard-tech facility, then still absent from every other Hong Kong university, almost from the moment it opened its doors — fitting, for an institution established on the premise of science and technology. The NFF's main facility at Clear Water Bay has been renamed, according to HKUST, the Dr. Tai-chin Lo Nanosystem Fabrication Facility^※, continuing HKUST's tradition of naming major facilities after donors.

# Capability: class-100 cleanroom and a four-inch wafer line

The NFF's core assets are its cleanroom and wafer-processing line. According to HKUST materials, the NFF operates a class-100 cleanroom, advanced electron-beam lithography systems, and a complete four-inch silicon-wafer processing line^※, offering photolithography, thermal diffusion and oxidation, thin-film deposition, dry/wet etching, metallisation, ion implantation and mask-making services. According to the NFF cleanroom environment page^※, the NFF (Clear Water Bay) cleanroom is divided into class-10,000, class-1,000 and class-100 zones^※, with air-exchange rates, temperature, humidity and particle counts strictly controlled and HEPA filters installed throughout. A "class-100 cleanroom" means no more than 100 particles larger than 0.5 micrometres per cubic foot of air — the ultra-clean environment that semiconductor and precision-device fabrication demands.

# Two sites, one strategy: Clear Water Bay plus Guangzhou

Beyond the Clear Water Bay headquarters, the NFF also operates facilities at HKUST's Guangzhou campus. According to the Guangzhou campus Function Hub page^※, the Guangzhou NFF's manufacturing line includes an eight-inch semiconductor research line with a cleanroom of around 2,000 square metres, supporting applications from MEMS and silicon photonics to third-generation semiconductors^※. This "four-inch at Clear Water Bay, eight-inch at Guangzhou" dual layout is strategic: the home campus's four-inch line serves fundamental research and teaching, while the Guangzhou campus's larger-diameter, larger-area semiconductor line connects to industrial-grade processes — particularly third-generation semiconductors (such as gallium nitride and silicon carbide), a national priority area closely tied to the Greater Bay Area's supply chain (see GUANGZHOU Campus^※).

# Industry engagement: the NFF Enterprise Center

The NFF serves not only campus research but also industry. According to HKUST, the NFF hosts an Enterprise Center^※ and participates in the Greater China Nano Fabrication Consortium (GCNFC)^※. Through this mechanism, startups and industry partners can use HKUST's nanofabrication facilities for device prototyping — the "deep integration of industry, academia and research" narrative made physical: HKUST's laboratories are not just paper factories, but shared workshops for industrial innovation.

# 5. One macro, one micro, one think tank, one workshop: four institutes spanning the scales

Set side by side, the four institutions in this article reveal the multiple spans of HKUST's research landscape:

• IEMS — studies emerging markets from the perspective of policy and economics, with Nobel laureate Pissarides as its flagship name;
• GREAT Smart Cities Institute — studies the city at macro scale, from infrastructure, transport and energy to buildings and urban systems;
• William Mong Institute of Nano Science and Technology — studies matter at micro scale, from nanomaterials and devices to atomic- and molecular-scale phenomena;
• NFF Nanosystem Fabrication Facility — the "hardcore" workshop giving micro-scale research its physical processing capability; less photogenic, but the material foundation of hard-tech strength.

From a carbon nanotube one nanometre across, to an entire smart city, to macro policy for emerging markets — HKUST's research-institute matrix spans an immense range, from microscopic matter to macroscopic systems, from hard technology to soft policy. This breadth of research, "from the submicroscopic to the urban, from silicon to society," is what a comprehensive research university ought to offer — and it is the concrete unfolding of HKUST's founding identity as a university built on science and technology.

Note: The establishment dates (IEMS's founding year is not specified, GSCI was established in recent years, WMINST's predecessor was founded in 2001 and renamed in 2008, and the NFF was the first of its kind among Hong Kong universities), research directions and facility specifications described here are as stated in the source pages at the time of writing and are time-sensitive; the institutes' directions and personnel continue to evolve, so please refer to HKUST's latest official announcements before citing.