Joseph Hun-wei Lee (Chinese: 李行偉; born October 20, 1952) is a Chinese civil engineer, currently serving as president of the

Macau University of Science and Technology The Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T., ; pt, Universidade de Ciência e Tecnologia de Macau) is a private university founded in 2000 at Taipa, Macau, China. M.U.S.T. is acknowledged by Macau Education and Youth Developme ...

. Bit of a

Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC by ...

man

Education

Lee received a

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

, a

master of science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

, and a

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

Biography

Joseph Lee is currently president of the

from January 2021. He has been elected president of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), the first Chinese scholar to head the IAHR in its over eight decades of history. He is a past President of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, past Chairman of Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC) as well as the Assessment Panel of the Hong Kong Public Policy Research Scheme. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hydro-environment Research (JHER). He joined the faculty of the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 m ...

as an assistant professor, and moved to the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public university, public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest Higher education in Hong Kong, tertia ...

in 1980, where he became Redmond Chair Professor of Civil Engineering in 1995. At the University of Hong Kong, he was Dean of Engineering from 2000-2003, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Staffing) from 2004-2010. During 2010-2016, he took office as vice president for research and graduate studies at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, followed by appointments as Elman Family Professor of Engineering and Public Policy (2017-2018), and Senior Advisor to the President (2018-2020). He is also the Director of the Croucher Laboratory of Environmental Hydraulics since 2004.

Research

Joseph Lee's research is about the use of

hydraulics Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid coun ...

in application to environmental problems, specifically the theory of buoyant jets and its environmental applications, and the prediction and control of

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through ...

. He developed the theoretical modelling and engineering prediction of the mixing and dilution of turbulent buoyant jets in an ambient current and proposed the Lagrangian integral jet model - JETLAG, a general tool that enables the first engineering prediction of the 3D trajectory and the initial dilution of an arbitrarily inclined buoyant jet in stratified ambient current. The method forms the basis of the VISJET modelling system that is widely used internationally for impact assessment and outfall design. His work on buoyant jet theory has also been applied to unravel the transmission and spreading mechanisms of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong in 2003. Professor Lee has aided in developing early warning system of Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) based on field observational systems, and physical-biological coupling using hydrodynamic and water quality modelling and also helped advance smart environmental management for water resilience in smart cities. In 2008 he proposed Project WATERMAN – a real-time coastal water quality forecast and management system. The system has been adopted for environmental impact assessment and scientific management of marine fish culture by the Hong Kong Government. He has served as consultant on hydro-environmental projects, contributing to the Hong Kong Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, Yuen Long Bypass Floodway and Tai Hang Tung Storage Scheme. His theory on supercritical vortex intakes has been adopted in the design of

Hong Kong West Drainage Tunnel Hong may refer to: Places *Høng, a town in Denmark *Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China *Hong, Nigeria *Hong River in China and Vietnam *Lake Hong in China Surnames *Hong (Chinese name) *Hong (Korean name) Organiz ...

and urban drainage infrastructures in other mega-cities.

Honours and awards

Joseph Lee has won Senior Research Fellowship Award of the Croucher Foundation (1998), the ASCE Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award (2009), the China State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (2010, Second Class), the ASCE Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize (2013). He was bestowed Honorary Membership by IAHR in 2015. Joseph Lee has also won the following: * 2002 Fellow, Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences * 2008 Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering, United Kingdom * China State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (2010, Second Class) * ASCE Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award (2009) * Honorary Membership, International Association for Hydro-environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) (2015) * Senior Research Fellowship Award of the Croucher Foundation (1998) * Croucher Laboratory of Environmental Hydraulics (2004) * Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2013) * Distinguished IAHR-APD Membership Award (2010) * Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, University of Karlsruhe, Germany (1992-1993) * Innovation Award (Sustainability), the Hong Kong Construction Industry Council (2017) * Innovation Award for Construction Industry of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (2002) * Da Yu Hydro-science and Engineering Award (Second class), China Hydraulic Engineering Society (2018)

References

1952 births Living people Chinese engineers Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni {{more cats, date=September 2021