City University of Macau (CityU) will confer honorary doctorate degrees upon Michael Batty, Fang Binxing, and Su Tong (Tong Zhonggui) to commend their outstanding achievements in their respective fields, as well as their significant contributions to the development of society and higher education. The Ceremony for the Conferment of Honorary Degree and the Congregation 2024/2025 will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 24, at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion. Live streaming of this ceremony will be available. Interested parties are welcome to watch the ceremony online and share this honorable moment together.
Michael Batty, professor at University College London and chair of the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), is a pioneer and a leader in the field of contemporary urban science.
He was elected a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the British Academy (FBA) in 2001, and became a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2009. His accolades include the prestigious Prix International de Géographie Vautrin Lud (Vautrin Lud Prize in English) in 2013—often referred to as the “Nobel of Geography”, the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 2015, and the Gold Medal of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 2016. Professor Batty was elected a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2023. His recent publications include Cities and Complexity (2005), The New Science of Cities (2013), Inventing Future Cities (2018), The Computable City (2024), Urban Informatics (2021), and A Digital Future for Planning (2022). His work focuses on applying computational methods to urban mapping and visualization, exploring related research areas and methodologies.
Academician Fang Binxing is an expert in information networks and information security, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and director of the National Engineering Research Center of Information Security. He also serves as president of the Chinese Information Processing Society of China, chairman of the Cyberspace Security Talent Education Alliance of China, chairman of the Cyberspace Security Innovation Alliance on Emerging Technology of China, president of the Cyberspace Security Industry Association of Macao, and honorary dean of the School of Cyberspace Security at Guangzhou University. He has designed China’s highly influential national cybersecurity and information security infrastructure and proposed the innovative “Shield Cube” cybersecurity defense system, which provides robust support for establishing an in-depth cyber defense framework and safeguarding national and social security.
Academician Fang once served as president of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team of China, director of the Internet Emergency Response Coordination Office under the Ministry of Information Industry, and the first president of the Cybersecurity Association of China. His primary research areas include cybersecurity and information security. Academician Fang has received China’s “Outstanding Technology Professional” title, in addition to the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, and has won two first prizes and five second prizes for the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award. Moreover, he has published over 400 papers and authored four books in total.
Su Tong (Tong Zhonggui) is a prominent contemporary Chinese writer. He is currently a distinguished professor at Beijing Normal University, a member of the Presidium of the China Writers Association, and vice president of the Jiangsu Writers Association, and is devoted to literary education and cultural development.
Professor Su began his writing career in the 1980s and has since published a string of literary works, including novels such as Wives and Concubines, Petulia’s Rouge Tin, My Life as Emperor, Rice, The Boat to Redemption, and Shadow of the Hunter. He has also written over one hundred short stories, including “The Umbrella”, “Watermelon Boats”, “Tale of the Abandoned Baby”, “White Snow, Pig Heads”, “Arrowhead Tubers”, and “Sweetgrass Barracks”. His novel, The Boat to Redemption, won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009 and the 8th Chinese Literature Media Award in 2010. He also received the 9th Mao Dun Literature Prize for Shadow of the Hunter in 2015. His short story, “Arrowhead Tubers”, won the 5th Lu Xun Literary Prize in 2010, while “The Multimeter” garnered both the 17th Baihua Literary Award in the short story category and the 5th Wang Zengqi Literary Award in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Professor Su’s acclaimed work, Wives and Concubines, was adapted into the film Raise the Red Lantern, and many of his writings have been translated into multiple languages, generating significant international impact. In 2011, he was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.
