Tony Chan's Nine Years (2009–2018): The Third President and His Subsequent Journey to KAUST

In one line: Tony Fan-Cheong Chan (born 20 January 1952) served as the third President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), from 1 September 2009 to 31 August 2018^※ — nearly nine years. During his tenure he oversaw the transition to the "3+3+4" academic structure reform, lifted HKUST into the world's top 30 in the QS World University Rankings, and made the University the first in Asia to join both Coursera and edX. From September 2018 he served as the third President of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)^※.

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# Who is Tony Chan, and how did a boy from Shau Kei Wan's grassroots rise to lead HKUST?

Tony Chan^※ grew up in a squatter area near a quarry in Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, in a poor family; he described himself as "thoroughly grassroots." After his secondary-school public examinations, his first application to the prestigious Queen's College was rejected. But when a friend told him there was "still an empty seat in the classroom," Chan went to the school on his own initiative to plead his case in person. He won over the headmaster and was admitted. That episode of knocking on doors with earnestness foreshadows the proactive stance he would adopt toward new challenges throughout his career. By the time he finished secondary school, he had been admitted to the medical school at the University of Hong Kong. Yet inspired by the writings of Nobel physics laureate Richard Feynman, he resolutely switched to science and engineering, won a scholarship to the United States, and completed a bachelor's in engineering and a master's in aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1973^※, before moving to Stanford University, where he earned a PhD in computer science in 1978^※ under numerical-computation specialist Joseph E. Oliger.

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# What academic and administrative credentials did he build up in the US?

After his doctorate, Chan began with postdoctoral research at Caltech, then served as assistant and associate professor of computer science at Yale University (1979–1986)^※. From 1986 he moved to the mathematics department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)^※, where he rose to department chair (1997–2000) and founding director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM, 2000–2001, now a world-renowned centre for applied mathematics research), before being promoted to Dean of Physical Sciences (2001–2006)^※, overseeing more than 200 faculty, some 1,400 students, and a substantial research budget. From 2006 to 2009 he served as Assistant Director of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate of the US National Science Foundation (NSF)^※, reporting directly to the NSF Director and managing an annual research budget of over US$1 billion (roughly HK$7.8 billion)^※ (NSF directorate figures for fiscal years 2006–2009). This stint gave him an institutional-level understanding of the research-funding ecosystem and of the university–government–industry triangle.

Sources: HKUST appointment announcement^※, Wikipedia^※

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# Why was he chosen to lead "Hong Kong's youngest university"?

In 2009 the HKUST Council appointed Chan as the University's third President, succeeding Paul Chu^※; the initial term was five years, effective 1 September 2009^※. At 57, Chan was the youngest President in HKUST's history. Marvin Cheung, then Council Chairman, praised him as "a scholar who rarely combines visionary leadership, outstanding academic achievement, and world-class administrative ability." Chan's edge lay in his dual profile: a solid research foundation in numerical and computational mathematics — his h-index stood at 90, placing him among the most-cited mathematicians globally in pure mathematics — plus the cross-institutional resource-integration skills honed at UCLA and the NSF. That he was also a home-grown Hongkonger who understood the local education ecosystem made him, in the Council's eyes, the ideal person to fuse international vision with local sensibilities. When he took office, HKUST was already ranked in the top three in Asia in the QS Asian University Rankings, handing him a platform with a high starting point.

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# The "3+3+4" reform and MOOC pioneering: how did he reshape teaching at HKUST?

The biggest structural change of Chan's tenure was the full implementation of Hong Kong's "3+3+4" education reform — extending the undergraduate curriculum from three to four years. HKUST launched its four-year undergraduate programme in the 2012/13 academic year^※, redistributing credit space between general education and departmental electives with the aim of cultivating graduates of broader outlook. To support the expanded curriculum, Dr. Lee Shau Kee donated HK$400 million^※ to the University, which named the new campus area after him — the Lee Shau Kee Campus and the Lee Shau Kee Business Building — officially opened in 2013^※, providing the physical infrastructure for the four-year curriculum.

In digital education, Chan pushed HKUST to become the first university in Asia to join both Coursera and edX^※ (Coursera in 2012, edX in 2013, the earliest participation among Asian universities), bringing HKUST's academic content directly to learners worldwide. He was also an active advocate of using new technology to support the classroom, positioning the University as a test bed for innovation in educational technology.

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# Beyond the curriculum expansion, what new facilities did he add to campus?

The growth in student numbers brought by the four-year curriculum forced continuous campus expansion — a thread of capital works that ran through nearly all of Chan's term. After the opening of the Lee Shau Kee Campus in 2013, 2015 — HKUST's 25th anniversary — saw the opening ceremony of the Cheng Yu Tung Building^※, officiated by Council Chairman Andrew Liao and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Chairman Henry Cheng, among others. In his speech Chan remarked that the new building's completion "coinciding with HKUST's 25th anniversary" gave it special meaning, and pledged that the University would put the facilities to good use in advancing research excellence and nurturing innovative talent. Over this period, the campus footprint and its teaching-and-research space expanded markedly compared with when Chan took office, laying the physical groundwork for steady output of four-year-curriculum graduates.

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# How much did HKUST's rankings improve over his nine years?

Before Chan took office, HKUST was already near the top in Asia in the QS World University Rankings, but had yet to establish itself securely in the global top 40. After nearly a decade of steady improvement, HKUST rose to 33rd in the QS World University Rankings in 2012^※, and held a position between 30th and 36th globally around his departure^※ (QS basis, taking the rankings published in the 2015/16 academic year as an example). In the dedicated young-university league tables, HKUST long topped the QS Top 50 Under 50^※. In the Asian rankings, HKUST claimed first place in the QS Asian University Rankings for the first time in 2011^※ (having been second in 2010). On employer reputation, HKUST also reached the top 13 in THE's global employer-reputation ranking^※ (around 2018). In his departure statement, he described HKUST as "one of the world's top universities."

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# What did he concretely achieve in fundraising and endowed professorships?

Chan made fundraising one of his core duties, attracting a series of substantial donations during his tenure. In June 2016, Mr. Martin Ka-shing Lee, Vice Chairman of Henderson Land, donated HK$150 million^※ to support the construction of the Martin Ka Shing Lee Innovation Building — a planned seven-storey structure of over 8,000 square metres combining an incubator, an industry–academia collaboration platform, and interdisciplinary research centres — one of the largest single donations received around HKUST's 25th anniversary. In 2013, the Li Ka Shing Foundation also gave HK$20 million^※ to broaden students' global perspectives and nurture innovative leaders.

The results in endowed professorships were even more striking. When Chan took office in 2009, HKUST had fewer than ten Named Professorships^※; by his departure the number had grown to nearly forty — an increase of almost fourfold (figures across his tenure). KAUST's appointment announcement described this as "nearly tripling the number of endowed professorships." These chairs provide additional research funding to their holders each year, significantly strengthening the University's ability to attract and retain world-class scholars. A substantial share of the new chairs went to the distinguished professors and academic leaders^※ chronicled elsewhere on this site, completing a closed loop of fundraising, naming, and talent acquisition.

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# How did he upgrade the Institute for Advanced Study into a platform hosting Nobel laureates long-term?

HKUST's Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) was founded at the initiative of founding President Paul Chu in June 2006^※; when Chan took over, it was still a young institution. During his tenure, in June 2013 the IAS moved into the Lo Ka Chung Building on the Lee Shau Kee Campus and was formally named the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study in November of the same year^※, accompanied by the inauguration of the first batch of Jockey Club IAS Named Professors^※. Nobel economics laureate Christopher Pissarides^※ was among this first cohort, becoming one of the first Nobel-level scholars to take up a full-time post in HKUST's history. The move continued a strategy Chan had long pursued: using endowed funding to secure deep, lasting engagement from top scholars rather than short guest lectures. The IAS thus evolved from a lecture-oriented platform into a permanent international hub of academic excellence — a thread that corroborates the account of faculty internationalisation in this site's Notable Professors and Academic Leaders^※ and Academics and Honorary Fellows^※ pages.

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# How did he put HKUST on the world stage?

Chan deliberately folded HKUST's international image-building into his strategic vision. From 2013 he attended the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos as the sole representative of a Hong Kong university^※, later participating as a member of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), a grouping of the presidents of 25 of the world's top universities^※, seated alongside the leaders of MIT, Oxford, Imperial College, and others — markedly raising HKUST's profile in international higher-education circles. At the same time, he expanded strategic partnerships with EPFL, Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, and other world-leading institutions, lifting the proportion of students going on overseas exchange to over 50% (from roughly 30% in 2009). Under his tenure HKUST also appeared for the first time on the IdeasLab stage of the World Economic Forum's "Summer Davos" — the first Asian university to present its research at that forum.

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# What did he contribute to Hong Kong's innovation and technology policy?

Having once managed an annual budget of over US$1 billion at the NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, Chan understood firsthand the leverage that public research funding exerts on an innovation ecosystem. During his tenure he served as a member of the Hong Kong SAR Government's Steering Committee on Innovation and Technology^※, lobbying actively for greater government investment in innovation and technology. The Innovation and Technology Bureau was formally established on 20 November 2015^※, and it is widely believed in the industry that sustained lobbying by academic leaders such as Chan played a role in pushing it through, although the government has never made any direct attribution. He also advocated "putting incubators directly on university campuses," promoted the establishment of joint laboratories at HKUST with WeChat (Tencent) and Huawei, and repeatedly held up DJI founder and HKUST alumnus Frank Wang^※ to students as a living example of entrepreneurship — urging Hong Kong youth to "erase the line between Hong Kong and Shenzhen in their minds" and seek a bigger stage in the Greater Bay Area.

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# Why did he step down six months early, and how was it received?

On 10 June 2017, Chan wrote to the HKUST Council to announce his resignation^※, a year before his second term was due to end in 2019, with his actual departure set for 1 September 2018^※. In his statement he said: "This is the right time for the University and myself to start the selection of a new President," and expressed the hope of leaving his successor ample transition time and room for "fresh ideas and long-term commitment."

Some outside voices criticised him for leaving early and irresponsibly. Chan responded candidly: the average tenure of an American university president is about 6.5 years, and his nearly ten years far exceeded that standard^※. Council Chairman Andrew Liao accepted the resignation, praising his contributions to strategic planning, fundraising, and campus development, and immediately launched a global search for a successor. In January 2018, then Executive Vice-President and Provost Wei Shyy was appointed HKUST's fourth President^※, taking over seamlessly on 1 September that year. Chan later said of the handover: "Shyy and I were highly aligned in vision; the transition was smooth."

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# Why did he choose KAUST, and what did taking charge of a Middle Eastern university mean?

In April 2018 the KAUST Board announced Chan's appointment as its third President, effective 1 September 2018^※, succeeding Jean-Lou Chameau, the French-trained engineer and former Caltech President. The appointment was not without precedent — Chan's connection to KAUST went back to 2007^※: during his NSF tenure he had hosted meetings in Washington, D.C. for KAUST's founding preparatory team, and he had served on the KAUST Board of Trustees since 2011^※. What he took on was a highly international research university barely a decade old — a campus community of some 7,000 people from 111 nationalities, earning him the informal title of "mayor of KAUST." He described the opportunity as "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity"^※. He was also the first Hongkonger to head a top-tier Middle Eastern research university^※.

Khalid Al-Falih, then Chairman of the KAUST Board of Trustees and Saudi Minister of Energy, commented:

"His outstanding record as a leader in higher education and innovation will help us accomplish our ambitious goals in this important time of national transformation." — KAUST official announcement^※

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# What did he do at KAUST, and why did he step down in 2024?

Chan steered KAUST toward alignment with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 economic-transformation strategy^※, positioning the University as a knowledge engine supporting the nation's economic diversification. He expanded KAUST's original four research pillars — energy, water, food, and the environment — to encompass emerging fields such as artificial intelligence and Smart Health, and added two new research directions: Cyber Security and Circular Carbon^※, reshaping the University's academic landscape from its early energy-and-environment-focused "four pillars" into a broader map spanning digital and health frontiers. On scale, he set a target of increasing faculty and student numbers by about 50%^※, while stepping up investment and capacity-building in innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge transfer to fulfil the University's "second mission"^※ — the commercialisation of research findings — and promoted strategic partnerships with Saudi Aramco, SABIC, Imperial College, and others.

On research output, KAUST remained for several consecutive years among the fastest-growing Arab-region universities in research-paper citation rates^※ (as described by a Chinese scholar teaching in Saudi Arabia in an interview) — consistent with his incorporation of emerging disciplines like AI and smart health into the research pillars. He also extended ties between Chinese universities and Saudi Arabia, with KAUST signing a dual-doctoral-degree agreement with The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and jointly establishing a laboratory in scientific computing and machine learning^※ — in some ways a Middle Eastern reprise of the Greater Bay Area industry-academia-research approach he had championed at HKUST (see his public admiration for DJI founder Frank Wang^※).

After stepping down as KAUST President, Chan has continued his public role in education and research governance: he serves on the Board of Directors of the Yidan Prize, one of the world's largest education awards^※, helping judge the highest achievements in education research and development worldwide — a role that in some ways distils his decades of moving between academic research, university administration, and research-funding systems, and continues the "driving educational change through top-level strategic vision" stance he maintained at both HKUST and KAUST.

He also received the SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 2020^※ (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics), a notable recognition of his professional influence during this period. He stepped down as KAUST President in August 2024^※, succeeded by Australian neuroscientist Ed Byrne, after serving six years in the post.

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# How significant is his research legacy?

Chan's mathematical research centres on the intersection of "numerical methods, image processing, and scientific computing." The "Chan–Vese model" he proposed with collaborators — an active-contour approach to image segmentation — has been widely cited in medical imaging, video analysis, computer vision, and other fields; the related paper has been cited over 7,000 times^※ (Google Scholar basis), keeping him among the most-cited mathematicians in the world (an ISI Highly Cited Author in mathematics). The model's formal origin is the paper Active Contours without Edges, published in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing in 2001^※ with collaborator Luminita Vese. Unlike traditional active-contour methods that locate boundaries via image gradients, the Chan–Vese model draws on the Mumford–Shah functional and level-set methods, driving contour evolution by intensity differences within regions — enabling it to handle images with blurred boundaries and heavy noise. Over the following two decades it was cited, refined, and ported into deep-learning frameworks by a large body of follow-up work, making it the representative theoretical contribution he left behind before leaving purely academic posts for university administration. His scholarly output includes more than 200 peer-reviewed papers^※ (as of his 2009 appointment) and an h-index of about 90.

Key academic honours:

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