Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1992

and vice-chancellor of the University; Prof. the Hon. Wang Gungwu, member of the Board of Directors of HKIB; and Prof. Dominic Man-kit Lam, honorary director of HKIB. The function was attended by over 150 guests. In his welcoming address, Prof. Kao represented the Board of Directors o f HKIB to thank all parties involved in launching the institute in 1988 and gave a brief account of the progress made by the institute to foster collaboration with business corporations and tertiary institutions on biotech- related projects and to attract investments. He gave examples of various agreements signed with research institutes in the USA, mainland China and Taiwan to develop biotechnical products targeted at the world market, and stated that researchers had so far been concentrating their efforts on discoverin g new drugs based on oriental health concepts and materials, and on pollution control by bio-processes. The institute, he said, had plans to expand into areas such as pharmaceutical and diagnostic agents based on genetic engineering, and high-nutrition food products. Research Activities to Benefit from UPGC Equipment Grants The Research Grants Council of the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC) recently considered 21 proposals submitted by six local tertiary institutions for funds to strengthen their research base, and decided to allocate grants totalling $5 million to finance two schemes, both of which wer e proposed and supported by the University: 1. HK$2.5 million to subsidize the cost of a Massively Parallel Computer to be installed at The Chines e University and managed by the University for research purposes. The University will make available the use of the equipment to other tertiary institutions, but users will have to pay a management fee. 2. HK$2.5 million to subsidize the cost of a Transmission Electronic Microscope to be installed at the City Polytechnic. As a major supporter of this project, The Chinese University shares the us e of the microscope with the City Polytechnic, the Hong Kong Polytechnic and the Baptist College. In addition to these two grants, the UPGC has made available HK$1.2 million to the six institutions for the acquisition of personal computers for researchers in the fields of arts, the humanities, social science, and business. The Chinese University will receive $0.2 million for the purpose, and the Research Committee will deliberate on how the money should be spent. Two Million Dollars for Research from Croucher Foundation Two research projects proposed by members of the University have recently succeeded in obtaining financial assistance from the Croucher Foundation. The first project is a three-year research o n 'Effects of oil and oil dispersants on marine plankton in Hong Kong waters', conducted by Drs. P.K. Wong and C.K. Wong of the Department of Biology. Th e second project is a two-year research on ‘An integrated expert systems/simulation approac h to telecommunicat network planning' by Dr. P.C. Wong of the Department of Information Engineering. The former has been granted HK$ 1,302,000 and the latter, HK$662,240. Hong Kong Telecom Foundation Supports Telecommunicat Research The University recently received HK$800 ， 000 from the Hong Kong Telecom Foundation to conduct applied research in computer and telecommunication s studies. The presentation ceremony was held on 15th April, and Prof. Charles K. Ka o represented the University to receive the donation fro m Mr. John Tonroe, finance director of Hong Kong Telecom. Several major research programmes currently NEWS 20 -