International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Hsin-Kang CHANG

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2008, Professor Hsin-Kang Chang is a biomedical engineer whose research and professional work have focused on applied respiratory physiology, biomedical and physiological sciences, and the application of engineering principles to medicine. Born in July 1940 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, he received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from National Taiwan University in 1962 and his master’s degree in structural engineering from Stanford University in 1964 before turning to biomedical engineering and earning his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1969. He subsequently held academic positions at universities in the United States and Canada, including McGill University and the University of Southern California, where he served as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering from 1985 to 1990. He was President of the Biomedical Engineering Society of the United States from 1988 to 1989. In 1990 he returned to Hong Kong as Founding Dean of the School of Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, serving until 1994, and later served as Dean of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. From 1996 to 2007 he was President and University Professor of the City University of Hong Kong and is now Emeritus Professor. He has also held honorary and visiting professorships at universities in mainland China. His public service in Hong Kong included appointments to the Cultural and Heritage Commission, the Council of Advisors on Innovation and Technology, and the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission. A Foreign Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, he was appointed a Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the French Order of Academic Palms, and received the Gold Bauhinia Star of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

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Professor Chang’s scientific research has centred on respiratory physiology and the application of engineering methods to biomedical and clinical problems, contributing to the development of biomedical engineering as an interdisciplinary field. During his academic career in North America, he published more than 100 scientific papers and contributed to the development of biomedical engineering education and research programmes, training professionals at the interface of engineering, medicine, and physiology. His academic leadership subsequently extended to institution building in Hong Kong, where he played a role in establishing and developing engineering education at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and in shaping the development of City University of Hong Kong. In his later career, Professor Chang has devoted considerable attention to general education and the humanities. He has taught courses on history, culture, and world civilisations at universities in China and abroad, and has published 12 books in Chinese and English, including Journey through the Greater Middle East, Reflections on the Nile, Cultivation in University: Thirty-Six Lectures on the Humanities, and Tea and Coffee: Lectures on Culture and Economics. His writing and teaching explore the relationship between technological development, higher education, cultural understanding, and the humanities. Through research in biomedical engineering, university leadership, and sustained engagement with humanistic education and cross-cultural dialogue, Professor Chang has contributed to the development of biomedical engineering and higher education in Hong Kong and internationally.