After assuming the first female Head of Chung Chi College in 2023, Professor Kwan Mei Po (1985 / Geography) has continued to achieve remarkable successes across her research fields, earning numerous “firsts.” Is success only reserved for intelligent individuals like her? Professor Kwan says that things were not like that. She hopes to use her own experience as an example to inspire everyone to boldly step outside their comfort zones and recognise the boundless potential within humans.

Professor Kwan is famously a “busy bee”. She wakes up every day at 3:30 am and awaiting her — besides research — are tasks from her department, research institute, and Chung Chi College. While many people marvel at her hard work, she embraces it with pleasure, describing her most enjoyable moment: “Every morning when I wake up and think about those explorable academic questions and discoverable knowledge, I feel incredibly uplifted as a scientist.”

A Satellite Carrying Ideals

Sustainable development is the key research of Professor Kwan, which has led her to involve a wide range of research areas. By applying cutting-edge geographic information science and remote sensing methodologies, she is dedicating herself to addressing major urban challenges in the areas of health, transportation, environment, and society. Satellites are vital tools for research. “Due to the lack of precise geographic data in the past, people paid less attention to the relations between geography and other disciplines, which left scientists facing many difficulties. That’s why launching satellites is so important,” she explains.

On 24 September, 2024, the “Hong Kong Youth Scientific Innovation” satellite was successfully launched from Shandong Province. This is the first satellite developed by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the first to receive funding from the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Professor Kwan is the leader of this key project.

She notes that this satellite is collecting data about sustainable development, covering issues such as floods, landslides, green space ecology, and health risks. “The information gathered by the satellite can encourage interdisciplinary integration. For example, the amount of green space and exposure to artificial light at night can affect people’s mental health. By collecting more precise data, we can achieve more substantial research outcomes in public health.” She also revealed that CUHK will launch a second satellite into space this year to gather data on a larger scale.

A carbon satellite is Professor Kwan’s next major goal. She hopes to use it to monitor global greenhouse gas concentrations, track emission sources, and facilitate data sharing to initiate international monitoring mechanisms. In June 2025, the HKSAR Government’s “Innovation and Technology Support Programme Special Call” awarded a total of over HK$19 million to support the interdisciplinary research on next-generation carbon satellite that she coordinates.

Professor Kwan stated that the CUHK satellite not only advances the scientific research of CUHK and Hong Kong, but also shares collected data with the surrounding regions, which leads Hong Kong’s aerospace science and technology to become globalised. (Image source: Chinese University Alumni Magazine, issue December 2024)

A Scientist Keeps Breaking New Grounds

Beyond satellites, Professor Kwan has published highly pioneering research in other areas, focusing on the relationships between human perception, emotion, behavior, and geospatial contexts, thereby broadening geographic information science to include a humanistic perspective. In 2022, she became the first Chinese female scholar to receive the James R. Anderson Medal of Honor in Applied Geography from the American Association of Geographers, in recognition of her innovative thinking in linking geography with diverse disciplines in the social, health, and transport sciences.

Professor Kwan admits her passion for exploring new possibilities: “I like to break with convention and establish new ones, and my research often refuses to follow old academic traditions, which is extremely difficult. Many years ago, I wanted to publish a new theory on research methods in geography, which could lead to a paradigm shift. But it was unappreciated by my peers, and I faced many obstacles when trying to publish the papers.” Today, her theories have been validated and have triggered paradigm shifts in different disciplines. For this experience, she stresses the importance of sticking to one’s beliefs and practicing it: “As long as the thing is right, dawn will eventually come — and it may even change the world.”

The successful launch of CUHK’s satellite project in 2024 further elevated Professor Kwan’s academic standing. In the same year, She was recognised as a Fellow of the Geographical Society of China.In addition, Professor Kwan also received two lifetime achievement awards: one is the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (2024), and the other is the Outstanding Achievement Award in Modeling Geographical Systems from the Modeling Geographical Systems Commission (MGSC) of the International Geographical Union (IGU) (2023). In November 2025, she was elected a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (the only Fellow from Hong Kong elected in that year), in recognition of her outstanding academic achievements and her contributions to promoting science in the developing world. “I am truly honored. That is a recognition of my contributions to the advancement of scientific research in China,” she said. Further, Professor Kwan was elected a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences in December 2025.

Professor Kwan was selected by the Global Innovation Enterprise Society as a “Global Outstanding Chinese Leader” in December 2025, and was invited to speak at the presentation ceremony to share her experience and insights.

An Indefatigable Chinese Female Scholar

Professor Kwan has earned many academic honors as the first Chinese person or the first Chinese woman. For her, becoming an academic leader has never been easy: “Back then, my identity, together with my unconventional academic perspective, meant I had to put in several times more effort than others to prove my ability. This was not just for records or awards, but to change people’s biases against female scientists.”

Academia ultimately values research achievements, and her efforts have been richly rewarded. These include being listed in the 2023 Global Scholars Academic Impact Ranking and ranked first in China in the field of Geography. She is also listed by Stanford University among the world’s top 2% scientists for both 2024 and 2025 and has consecutively ranked fifth globally in the Geography field.

“I have noticed that after I started receiving academic awards, more Chinese female scholars have also begun winning awards of their own. That means people are starting to recognise that we Chinese women can excel in academia.” The elevation of Chinese female scholars’ status can be seen as another kind of paradigm shift in which Professor Kwan participated. As a female role model, Professor Kwan was even selected by the Global Innovation Enterprise Society as a “Global Outstanding Chinese Leader” at the end of 2025. Time after time, she has proven what individual effort can achieve.

Professor Kwan has been appointed as a Senior Space Technology Advisor by the Hong Kong (International) Aerospace Charitable Foundation Limited (HKIACF) since September 2025. She was congratulated by Professor Dennis Lo Yuk Ming, Vice-Chancellor / President of CUHK (1st left), Mr. Henry Yip, Founder and Chairman of the Executive Board of HKIACF (3rd left), and Mr. Nick Chan, co-founder of HKIACF (4th left), and other friends at a dinner.

A Role Model for Chung Chi Students

As a scholar, Professor Kwan has also brought elements of sustainable development into Chung Chi College. After assuming the post of College Head, she has been promoting the work of the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee. In April 2024, the College launched the year-long “Carbon Neutral at Chung Chi” initiative, including the installation of a Carbon Neutral Garden and a series of carbon reduction activities, all of which were conceived by Professor Kwan. “I hope to make Chung Chi a more environmentally friendly and sustainable campus, broadening students’ perspectives on protecting the environment on Earth.”

Although Professor Kwan continues to break new ground, she emphasises that, whether doing research or serving as College Head, she is always putting herself forward as a role model for the students, conveying the message that “everything is possible.” “The key to success lies not in background, gender, or age, but in how much effort one is willing to put in.” She also gives advice to Chung Chi students: be brave in exploring yourself and the world, pursue your dreams, and become the new generation of Chung Chi-ers to ultimately achieve greater possibilities for yourselves and for Chung Chi.