The inaugural FOSS Mentorship Programme 2024–2025 was a resounding success. The Faculty extends its sincere gratitude to our alumni mentors for their dedication, generosity, and professional expertise. Their commitment has made a lasting impact on our students and will continue to inform the Faculty’s long-term development. The programme fostered meaningful mentor and mentee relationships, strengthened industry connections, and enhanced students’ career readiness. Participants shared overwhelmingly positive feedback, and the photo highlights capture the energy and engagement during the mentorship period. To build on this momentum, we are recruiting the next cohort for the FOSS Mentorship Programme 2025–2026. For programme details…

The Faculty proudly commemorates a significant milestone - three years of recognizing exceptional young women scholars with the prestigious Rosie Young 90 Medal. This award celebrates the inspiring legacy of Professor Rosie Young, a pioneering leader in medicine and education, and exemplifies our commitment to nurturing future female leaders in academia.

As part of our ongoing commitment to excellence in research and knowledge exchange, the Faculty of Social Sciences proudly announces the recipients of the 2024–25 Social Sciences Outstanding Research Output Awards. These prestigious honours recognise the remarkable dedication and outstanding achievements of our faculty members, who have set new benchmarks in their respective fields.

The impact of climate change and extreme weather events is exacerbating the challenge of achieving China’s key food and energy goals – and increasing the urgency. Two newly awarded scientists explain how the dual nature of their work is contributing to finding viable climate solutions that meet the challenge. With a population of 1.4 billion, ensuring an adequate food supply is critical in China. So too is the need for a reliable and powerful energy system. Set both of these goals against the backdrop of a climate that is changing quickly and dramatically and you begin to see the scale of the challenges facing the scientists who are working to achieve them. Two of these scientists are geography professors from the Faculty of Social Sciences (FoSS) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) – Assistant Professors Laibao Liu and Peng Zhu, both of whom were recently awarded the “Excellent Young Scientists Fund” for 2025 by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Their research is linked by their mission to help find solutions to China’s most pressing climate-related challenges: ensuring food and energy security.

Stellar rankings, new research hubs, more cross-departmental collaboration, and innovative programmes all play a part in the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences’ many recent achievements under Dean Wen’s leadership. After becoming Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (FoSS) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) in October 2022, Professor Ming Wen is now crossing over the midpoint of her term with a slew of achievements under her belt – and many more in the pipeline. She took on the role following a two-decade academic career at the University of Utah, most recently as Chair of the Department of Sociology. At HKU, her priorities included building on the faculty’s strong points and improving areas, including multi-disciplinary work and developing connections with mainland China.