HKUST "Firsts" and Major Achievements — A Wild-History Account

# 1. World's smallest carbon nanotube (2000)

According to Nature 408 (2000)^※, 2000^※, a research team in HKUST's Department of Physics (paper authors N. Wang, Z. K. Tang, G. D. Li, J. S. Li) successfully synthesised periodically arranged single-walled carbon nanotube arrays inside the nanopores of zeolite AFI single crystals, with a diameter of only 0.4 nanometres (4 angstroms)^※.

The lab page of HKUST physics professor Ping Sheng describes the result as pushing the tube's size to its "theoretical limit" — according to the HKUST physics department page^※, at this scale the carbon nanotube approaches the smallest diameter at which it can remain stable, and the synthesis method relies on the zeolite channels as a "nano-growth chamber" to grow the tubes one by one.

The research was published under the title "Single-walled 4 Å carbon nanotube arrays" in Nature, Vol. 408, pp. 50–51^※; the same issue of Nature also carried a News & Views commentary titled "The smallest carbon nanotube" (Nature 408)^※ discussing the finding. This is regarded as one of the landmark basic-research results HKUST produced in under a decade after its founding, and it drew global attention in nanoscience at the time. Follow-up work also reported superconducting properties in this class of ultra-thin carbon nanotube, opening a research line that continued to draw interest.

HKUST was originally built with funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. In the university's founding narrative, early breakthroughs like this one that made it into Nature are often cited as an early payoff on the "research university" vision that the Jockey Club's initial investment was betting on.

# 2. Airport windshear warning system (contract 1993 → operational 1998)

According to HKUST's 30th-anniversary milestones page, in 1993^※ HKUST signed a contract with the Hong Kong Government worth HK$118.7 million (US$118.7 million as stated in the source page)^※ to develop a windshear warning system for the new Hong Kong International Airport then under construction at Chek Lap Kok. The source text reads: "A $118.7 million contract was signed with the HK Government to develop an Operational Windshear Warning System for the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok." (30th Anniversary Milestones)^※

According to the NCAR/UCAR Research Applications Laboratory^※, the development team for this system (the Windshear and Turbulence Warning System, WTWS) included the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the University of Wyoming, and HKUST; the entire 44-month^※ project was led and sponsored by the Hong Kong Observatory. The system was designed specifically to address Chek Lap Kok's terrain — the windshear and turbulence risks created by airflow over the hills of Lantau Island and the surrounding bay as aircraft approach. According to NCAR/UCAR^※, NCAR researchers conducted field wind-measurement work in the hills around the airport between 1993 and 1997^※.

The new Chek Lap Kok airport opened in 1998^※, and the warning system began operating alongside it.

This was a major government-oriented research project HKUST took on only about two years after its founding, and it is seen by some as reflecting the founding aim of "serving Hong Kong's practical needs."

# 3. Hawking's inaugural lecture (15 June 2006)

According to the events page of HKUST's Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), at 3pm^※ on 15 June 2006^※, cosmologist Stephen Hawking gave a lecture at HKUST titled "The Origin of the Universe." According to the IAS milestones page^※ and the IAS events page^※, this was the inaugural lecture of the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study (IAS).

According to the IAS events page, more than 2,200 ticketed attendees^※ were present, including members of the public, guests, and HKUST faculty, staff, and alumni; the lecture was broadcast live on local television networks, with several thousand more viewers watching simultaneously across Hong Kong. Several records also state that the lecture was carried live by TVB News and Cable TV, and relayed by intranet to the other seven^※ tertiary institutions in Hong Kong.

# Two widely circulated details

Detail one (verified): According to the verbatim transcript on the IAS events page^※, speaking through his voice synthesiser about quantum cosmology, Hawking said: "We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the early universe — God really does play dice. In fact, all the evidence points to him being an inveterate gambler who throws the dice on every possible occasion!" This is a play on Einstein's famous line that "God does not play dice," delivered in Hawking's characteristic style of quantum-cosmology humour.

Detail two (verified): According to the same page^※, when asked why his synthesised voice had an American accent, Hawking explained that his voice came from an old synthesiser built in 1986^※ that he had long since come to regard as "his own," and joked: "I was offered one upgraded software package with a French accent. But if I used that, my wife would divorce me."

# 4. Kellogg-HKUST EMBA: the story of a business school ranked No. 1 in the world

# First reaching No. 1 (2007)

According to publicly available material, the Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA (EMBA) programme, jointly run by the HKUST Business School and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, launched in 1998^※ as Asia's first intercontinental "dual-campus" EMBA model, with students attending classes in both Hong Kong and Chicago. According to the programme description^※, the programme comprises 28 courses^※ taken over roughly 16 months^※, with faculty split evenly between HKUST and Kellogg.

According to the Financial Times' global EMBA rankings record, the programme first reached No. 1 in the world in 2007^※. It has repeated the feat multiple times since; according to HKUST and GMAC materials, the programme had topped the Financial Times' global EMBA ranking 12 times^※ cumulatively (as of the source material's cutoff date). This sustained record is also the most frequently cited reputational marker of HKUST's Business School.

# The backstory

According to the HKUST Business School's "Founders of Excellence," founding dean Mr. Chan (Chan Yuk Shee, founding dean) judged early on that the Asia-Pacific region lacked homegrown business leaders. According to the feature^※, in 1995^※ he recruited Kellogg class of 1985^※ graduate Mr. Steven DeKrey at an AACSB conference in Chicago to build a master's programme at HKUST; Mr. DeKrey later became the founding director of the EMBA programme and a key link in the long-running Kellogg–HKUST partnership.

The founding of this programme is often cited as an example of founding president Woo Chia-wei's "don't copy, create" principle — not replicating an existing MBA model, but designing one specifically for the Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific market.

Note: Mr. Chan was the founding dean of HKUST Business School at the time and has since stepped down from university administration; per this wild-history site's convention, he is referred to here as "surname + Mr."

# 5. Bill Gates's visit (1995)

According to HKUST milestone records, in 1995^※, Microsoft founder Bill Gates visited HKUST and gave a talk on the future of the digital revolution. Windows 95 had just launched that year, and Gates was near the peak of his commercial influence at the time.

HKUST lists this as one of its key milestones for 1995^※. HKUST's official milestones page records the visit under the title "Bill Gates talked about the future of the digital revolution at HKUST" (HKUST Milestones)^※.

# 6. First reaching No. 1 in Asian university rankings (2011)

According to the ranking body and HKUST's own announcements, in 2011^※ HKUST reached the top of that year's QS Asian University Rankings for the first time, becoming No. 1 in Asia; according to an HKUST announcement^※, HKUST went on to retain the top spot in 2012 and 2013^※, holding first place for three^※ consecutive years in total. Notably, the first year it reached No. 1 fell around HKUST's 20th anniversary^※ — for a university only about twenty years old at the time, this ranking is often cited by outside observers as a marker of its rapid rise.

Note: university rankings vary by ranking body, year, and methodology. What is described here is limited to the "QS Asian University Rankings" as recorded in the sources cited above, and is not equivalent to other world rankings or subject rankings.

# 7. Early role as an "internet pioneer"

HKUST opened in 1991^※, at a time when Hong Kong's internet infrastructure was still in its infancy. Informal accounts and retrospectives on the university's history often mention that HKUST, in its early years, had to rely relatively heavily on building its own network and digital-library facilities to operate, and some retrospectives regard this as making it one of the early adopters of information technology among local universities at the time. This point rarely appears in official promotional material and is found mostly in institutional-history narratives and accounts by those who were there; accordingly it is presented here only as a general summary, and the exact scale and any "earliest" wording should be checked against the original records.

Everything on this page is source-backed, verified content, with key figures cited inline at the point of use. For a fuller list of HKUST's research breakthroughs, see the official page of the HKUST School of Science: Scientific Breakthroughs and Discoveries | HKUST^※.