OpenU appoints Paul Lam as new headmaster

Doctor Paul Lam Kwan-sing will be appointed as the headmaster of the Open University of Hong Kong starting from April 1 next year, the university announced. 

Lam is currently the executive director of special projects and chair professor of the Department of Chemistry at the City University of Hong Kong. 

He said that he will closely collaborate with all staff members, students and alumni of the university so as to build an excellent learning environment. 

He also said that the university will keep providing open and flexible lectures to members of the public while the school is working on to become a comprehensive university. 

Lam obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Hong Kong between 1979 and 1984. 

In 1984, he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake his doctorate study at the University of Sheffield in England.

In 1998, he took up a Postdoctoral Fellowship at King's College, the University of London before returning to Hong Kong to take up a lecturing position at the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong in 1988. 

He has subsequently held tenured positions in a number of universities both in Hong Kong and overseas, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Victoria University in Australia. 

He joined the Department of Biology and Chemistry at the City University of Hong Kong in 1994.