Dr. Joseph Koo is a respected composer and music director of Cantopop songs. Early in the 1960s, Dr. Koo joined both Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited and Golden Harvest movie studios as a film music composer and arranger. His music pieces won several awards in the Golden Horse Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Film Festival. Over the past few decades, Dr. Koo has composed over 1,200 songs and many of them became Cantopop classics. His works changed the Hong Kong music scene in the 1970s, when popular music was dominated by adaptations of foreign songs. Dr. Koo was awarded the Highest Honour Award of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) Ten Best Chinese Music Programmes, the Music Accomplishment Award of Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong, made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star from the HKSAR Government. The University conferred upon Dr. Koo the degree of Doctor of Social Science, honoris causa, for his influence on Cantopop music and his contributions to the Hong Kong music industry.