Prof Edmond Ko received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. He held visiting and guest faculty appointments at the University of California, Berkeley (1987-88), California Institute of Technology (1996) and Tianjin University (since 2002). Prior to joining HKUST, Prof Ko served as Vice-President (Undergraduate Education), Dean of Students, and Professor (Chair) of Chemistry at City University of Hong Kong, and as the Vice Provost for Education and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Besides being the co-author of over 100 publications and co-inventor of a U.S. patent in the area of surface science and catalysis, Prof Ko is an accomplished educator and has received many teaching awards. In addition, he has nine years of academic administrative experience, with the first two at Carnegie Mellon and the last seven at the City University of Hong Kong. As the key person charged to improve education at these two institutions, he has directed activities in student recruitment and admissions, student development, student residence, curriculum design, quality assurance, and faculty development. He is particularly interested in developing an outcome-based approach to enhance student learning. Serving as Chairman of the Curriculum Development Council and a member of the University Grants Committee, Education Commission, and Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications of the HKSAR Government, Prof Ko is deeply involved in the formulation and implementation of education policies in Hong Kong at all levels. Since returning to Hong Kong in 1998, he has published 7 books and numerous articles on a wide range of educational issues in both English and Chinese. Having lived half of his life in the US, he is also keenly aware of the important of effective cross-cultural communication. He has created many cross-cultural learning experiences for students at HKUST and City University of Hong Kong, including conducting workshops on intercultural communication himself.