Press Release

HKBU to confer honorary doctoral degrees upon three distinguished individuals

Tuesday, 4 November 2025

Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) will confer honorary doctoral degrees upon three distinguished individuals: Dr Clement C J Chen will receive the degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa; Professor He Fuchu and Professor Sir Michael Houghton will be conferred the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, in recognition of their outstanding professional accomplishments and remarkable contributions to society. The conferment ceremony is scheduled to take place on 17 November.

Dr Clement C J Chen (Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa)

Dr Clement C J Chen is a distinguished industrialist who began his career in the family business, Tai Hing Cotton Mill Limited. Under his leadership, Tai Hing evolved from leveraging the hard manufacturing skillsets of mill employees towards an operational model based on the more portable soft skills related to the knowledge and creative industries.

Dr Chen was the Council Chairman of the Vocational Training Council and served in numerous industry and government-facing roles, including being a Member of the Textiles Advisory Board and the Labour Advisory Board, Chairman of numerous associations including the Hong Kong Cotton Spinners Association, the Hong Kong Productivity Council, and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. He was called upon by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR) to serve or chair select committees, including the Standing Committee on Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service; Manpower Development Committee; Steering Committee on Innovation and Technology; Economic Development Commission; and the Youth Education, Employment and Training Task Force.

From January 2019 to December 2024, Dr Chen held the position of Chairman of the Council and the Court of HKBU. His six-year stewardship was instrumental in shaping the University’s strategic growth and achievements, including overseeing the planning of the Jockey Club Campus of Creativity and HKBU’s successful bid in 2021 as the contractor for the service deed of the HKSAR’s first Chinese medicine hospital. During his tenure, Dr Chen also took a particular interest in deepening and strengthening the ties of “one university, two campuses” between HKBU in Kowloon Tong and its sister campus in Zhuhai (recently renamed as Beijing Normal–Hong Kong Baptist University).

Professor He Fuchu (Doctor of Science, honoris causa)

A visionary scientist and a pioneering researcher, Professor He Fuchu has pushed the boundaries of the fields of proteomics, precision medicine and systems biology. He has been instrumental in placing the nation at the forefront of scientific advancements of the modern era.

Professor He’s many achievements include the mapping of the human proteome and the discovery of hepatopoietin. His systematic decoding of the human proteome, particularly in the liver, led to the discovery of hundreds of new genes and proteins. Furthermore, he identified susceptibility genes associated with common malignancies in the Chinese population, such as liver cancer, as well as other communicable and non-communicable diseases. His scientific contributions have been documented in a broad range of papers in leading international journals.

In 2001, the same year he was elected as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor He became a founding member of the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) and subsequently established the Chinese arm of HUPO in 2003. He was the first Chinese scientist to lead the Human Liver Proteome Project, which led to the identification of a large number of potential drug targets for major liver diseases.

The long list of prestigious honours that Professor He has received over the years include the China Youth May Fourth Medal (2002), the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (2003), the C.C. Tan Life Science Achievement Award (2009), HUPO's Distinguished Service Award (2011) and the Distinguished Achievement in Proteomic Sciences Award (2020), and the Shulan Medical Award (2017), among others.

Professor Sir Michael Houghton (Doctor of Science, honoris causa)

British scientist and Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Michael Houghton is a world-renowned virologist whose groundbreaking contributions to medical science have had a transformative impact on global health. In 1989, working with Dr Qui-Lim Choo (now of HKBU) and Dr George Kuo, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), his laboratory successfully identified a DNA clone derived from the RNA genome of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) which led to the molecular discovery and characterisation of HCV and its encoded proteins. This discovery not only revolutionised contemporary understanding of viral infections but also paved the way for appreciable advancements in blood transfusion medicine, saving countless lives.

The introduction of HCV blood screening tests around the world has virtually eradicated the risk of acquiring HCV through blood transfusion. Their breakthrough work led to the development of curative antivirals by the HCV field and global pharmaceutical companies which have saved countless patient lives world-wide. The same HCV discovery team of Sir Michael, Dr Choo and Dr Kuo was the first to demonstrate a successful HCV vaccine in animal models, a modification of which is now being tested by Sir Michael 's laboratory in human volunteers in Canada at the University of Alberta.

Sir Michael has been the beneficiary of numerous accolades, including a British knighthood conferred by Queen Elizabeth II in the Birthday Honours of 2021 for services to medicine; the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Dr Harvey J Alter and Professor Charles M Rice) awarded by the Swedish Academy in 2020; and the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award awarded by the American Liver Foundation in 2018.

Sir Michael recently joined the HKBU community as an integral member of the University’s Preparatory Committee and the Expert Advisory Committee for the New Medical School. He has brought rigour and focus to the task of aligning HKBU’s academic bona fides and research innovation ethos to the rapidly evolving requirements of industry, government oversight, and the marketplace.

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