Newsletter No. 493

04 # 4 9 3 | 0 4 . 0 3 . 2 0 1 7 Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK; Prof. Wong Nai-ching, Henry (3rd left), head of New Asia College; Prof. Tang Hoi-chiu (2nd left), former chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; Prof. Mok Kar-leung, Harold (1st left), chairman of Department of Fine Arts; Prof. Kao Mayching (2nd right), former chair professor of Fine Arts and founding chairman of the Alumni Association; and Mr. Lo Kwan-chi (1st right), chairman of the Alumni Association. 藝術系為慶祝創系六十周年及系友會三十五周年，於2月16至23日假 銅鑼灣中央圖書館展覽館舉行系友作品展，展出包括十八位前任及現 任老師，以及九十二位系友的作品，呈示藝術系六十年來的傳承及成 果。作品媒介非常多元化，包括國畫、書法、油畫、版畫、陶塑及雕塑 等。不少作品難得一見，包括創系系主任陳士文先生的油畫及多位前 任老師的珍貴作品。開幕禮於2月17日舉行，主禮嘉賓包括中大副校 長許敬文教授（右三）、新亞書院院長黃乃正教授（左三）、香港藝術 館前總館長鄧海超教授（左二）、藝術系系主任莫家良教授（左一）、 藝術系前講座教授及系友會創會主席高美慶教授（右二），以及藝術 系系友會主席盧君賜先生（右一）。 To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Department of Fine Arts and the 35th Anniversary of its Alumni Association, the Alumni Art Exhibition was held from 16 to 23 February at the Hong Kong Central Library. The exhibits, among which were the works of 18 former and current teachers as well as 92 alumni, showcased the department’s tradition and accomplishments over the past six decades. The diverse collection of works included Chinese paintings, calligraphy, oil paintings, prints, ceramics and sculptures. Many of them are rare, such as the oil paintings of Mr. Chen Shih-wen, founding chairman of the department, and some former teachers. The opening ceremony was held on 17 February, graced by Prof. Michael Hui (3rd right), 藝術系六十周年系友作品展 Alumni Art Exhibition Celebrates 60th Anniversary of Fine Arts Department A team of researchers led by Prof. Jiang Liwen (2nd right), Choh- Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences, has recently made a major breakthrough in revealing the mechanism of plant autophagy pathway. They have discovered the membrane origin of autophagosome in plants, providing new insight into improving crop quality. The results have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Professor Jiang’s research team has been working on the underlying mechanisms of protein transport and organelle biogenesis in plant cells for more than 16 years at CUHK, and has been internationally recognized as a leading group in the field of plant cell biology. Autophagy protects the cells against stress conditions and pathogen infection. His research team uncovered a unique role of ATG9 (Autophagy 9) protein in meditating autophagosome progression from the ER (endoplasmic reticulum) membrane, thus providing a direct evidence for the ER as the site of autophagosome initiation in plants. Professor Jiang said, ‘Since ATG9 is conserved among higher eukaryotic cells, further research on the molecular mechanism of plant autophagy pathway will provide new insight into how to improve crop quality to overcome stress environment or pathogen infection, which has become a serious problem in agriculture.’ 生命科學學院卓敏生命科學教授姜里文 教授（右二）帶領的科研團隊，最近在植物 細胞自噬機制方面取得突破進展，首次發 現了植物自噬體膜的起源。有關研究可望 為提高農業生產的質量提供新思路，研究 成果已刊載於著名學術期刊《美國科學院 院報》。 過去十六年來，姜教授的科研團隊致力研 究蛋白質傳輸機理及細胞器的生物形成機 制，在植物細胞生物學領域一直處於國際 領先地位。當細胞面對逆境或遭受病原體 感染時，自噬機制可發揮保護作用；而內質 網是細胞內的一個精細的膜系統，是重要 的細胞器。科研團隊發現了核心自噬蛋白 9（ATG9）的獨特功能─負責調控自噬體 從內質網形成的過程，此發現直接證明了 內質網是自噬體形成的起點。姜教授表示： 「ATG9蛋白在高等真核細胞中廣泛存在， 在重要作物基因組都可以發現同源基因，因 此植物自噬分子機理的相關研究，將可以為 提高農作物質量等方面提供新思路。」 植物細胞自噬機制研究現突破 Major Progress Made in Plant Autophagy Research 馬榮健教授獲選IEEE院士 Prof. Ma Wing-kin Elected IEEE Fellow 電子工程學系馬榮健教授獲工程 學國際權威組織電機及電子工 程學會（IEEE）頒授2017院士榮 銜，以表彰他在訊號處理及通訊 最佳化方面所作的重大貢獻。中 大現有廿八名教授獲選為IEEE 院士。 訊號處理、通訊、最佳化及遙距 感應技術乃多項現代先進科技發 展的基石，包括智能手機、從生 物醫學造影或火星影像辨識肉眼 無法察覺的物體等。馬教授在以上範疇的基礎研究廣受認同，拆解了 多個關鍵難題。他於Google學術搜尋中被引用約七千次、於Web of Science被引用約三千二百次，並有八份論文被評為科學及工程領 域的最高引用論文（ESI Highly-Cited Papers，即該領域中最高的 1%）。他分別於2016年及2015年獲IEEE Signal Processing Letters 期刊及IEEE Signal Processing雜誌的最佳論文獎。 Prof. Ma Wing-kin from the Department of Electronic Engineering has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2017 for his contributions to optimization in signal processing and communications. A total of 28 professors currently serving at CUHK have been conferred such recognition including Professor Ma. Research in signal processing, communications, optimization and remote sensing are important powerhouses behind many amazing technologies, like smartphones and how we can discover something we cannot see with the human eye in biomedical images or in a Mars image. Professor Ma is well recognized for his fundamental contributions to the above areas and he has tackled a number of key problems. He has about 7,000 citations in Google Scholar, about 3,200 citations in Web of Science, and 8 papers that have been listed as Highly-Cited Papers by Essential Science Indicators (the top 1% of the academic field of engineering). He received the prestigious IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award in 2015 and IEEE Signal Processing Letters Best Paper Award in 2016.