Professor Lionel M. Ni is the Founding President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)). Professor Ni earned his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1980. He served as Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) and Chair Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Macau; Chair Professor and Head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dean of HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute and Special Assistant to the President; Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University (1981 to 2002), the Microelectronic Systems Architecture program director at US National Science Foundation (1995-1996), co-founder and CEO of CC&T Technologies, Inc., Michigan (1998-2001).

Professor Ni’s research interests include high-performance computing, internet technologies, mobile computing, wireless networking, big data, and intelligent computing. He has published three books and over 360 refereed journal and conference articles with over 37,000 citations on Google Scholar. As the winner of eight best paper awards, he has multiple achievements including ownership of 28 US/China patents and having supervised 73 well-placed PhD students.

A Life Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, Professor Ni won the Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award from China Computer Federation in 2009, the First Class Award in Natural Sciences from the Ministry of Education, China in 2010, the Second Class Award in Natural Sciences for Research Excellence from the State Council, China in 2011, and the First Class Award in Science and Technology from the Guangdong Province in 2014.