Other Activities

The Macro-Science Salon (宏觀科學沙龍) is part of a culture-building project in UST. It is not a seminar. Instead, it is more like a scientists’ social club. This Salon will meet roughly bimonthly and chaired by a rotating host. We will choose a focused topic for each Salon and invite a Discussion Leader to give a short overview at the beginning (about 30 minutes). Most of the Salon time will be used for free exchange among participants.

Sciences at present are too much compartmentalized. There seems to be invisible walls between different disciplines. We would like to break down these walls. Also, as a leading university, we would like to promote a new culture that values innovative ideas on major scientific issues and thinking in a global view. A good way to do that is to promote informal scientific exchange between scholars in different disciplines.

Initial Organizers:

Prof. Tony Chan (Former President, HKUST)

Prof. Donald Chang (Division of LIFS)

Prof. King Chow (Division of Life Science)

Prof. Henry Tye (Department of Physics)

Past topics:

1. What is Macro-Science and why should we care?

2. Evolution and Intelligent design

3. Will Machines Overtake Humans in the Future?

4. Is there intelligent life beyond the Earth? How would it look like?

5. The future of energy research and its impact on human society

6. Debates on Genetically Modified Food: Are they good or bad for human?

7. How well do we understand the origin of our physical world?

8. Is AI a help or threat to scientists?

9. Should research assessment be based on publishing in high Impact Factor journals? Is there a better alternative?