Professor Tom Wan Yau-heng
Emeritus Professor and Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics; Associate Head, New Asia College
35-Year Award
13 May 2026
“Counting both study and work, I have spent nearly 40 years at CUHK, which is two-thirds of my life. My attachment runs very deep. This place is not just my workplace; it is also my ball court,” Professor Tom Wan Yau-heng, who has long been passionate about mathematics and basketball, remarks with a smile.
For academics engaged in research and teaching, a 35-Year Long Service Award is exceptionally rare. It involves many years of devotion to complete doctoral and postdoctoral training before they can even assume a teaching position – and until recently, the retirement age was 60. Professor Wan joined CUHK in 1982, pursued doctoral studies in the US after graduation, returned to CUHK in 1990 to begin his teaching career – and has stayed here ever since.
CUHK played a pivotal role in enabling Professor Wan to pursue his studies overseas. Coming from a humble family, he lost his father at a young age and his mother expected him to enter the workforce as soon as possible when he graduated. Fortunately, a CUHK scholarship helped to relieve the financial pressure and, in the end, his mother gave her blessings to his studies.
Before he had even completed his doctoral degree, Professor Wan was invited back by his teachers in 1990 to teach in the Department. Although his professors in the US were keen to retain him, offering to secure an academic post for him, his wife wanted to return to Hong Kong, so he did so. “I completed my dissertation while teaching,” he says.
Soon after embarking on his teaching career, Professor Wan found himself confronting a formidable challenge. In the early 1990s, with Hong Kong’s financial sector expanding rapidly, society prioritised commercial development over science. Majoring in Mathematics was perceived as a choice with limited career prospects, which resulted in negative stereotypes, he recalls with a sigh. “Even sitcoms made fun of it.” With student enrolment falling and resources shrinking, he and his colleagues were determined to reverse the tide.
Under the leadership of Professor Lau Ka-sing, then Chair of the Department, Professor Wan and his colleagues began to map out a strategy for reform. They overhauled the curriculum to make it more flexible, diluting the focus on theoretical coursework and allowing students to take on a lighter credit load, pursue two minors and acquire a broader range of skills that better aligned with the needs of society. “Most students tended to choose Finance and Economics,” he notes.
At the same time, they channelled resources into reinforcing the Department’s established strengths. As Professor Wan points out: “Every year, about 10% of our students were going abroad for graduate studies, so we already enjoyed a certain level of international reputation.” The Department launched a new stream, “Enrichment Mathematics”, selecting academically outstanding students for intensive, high-level training, to help them gain admission to the world’s leading research institutions. The initiative proved enormously attractive to top-performing students. Although it initially offered only 15 places, enrolment consistently exceeded that number, and admission scores rose to be among the highest in the University. This two-pronged approach transformed the Department’s image within just a few years. Today, each cohort includes close to 100 mathematics majors.
With the aim of allowing younger faculty members to focus on their research, the Department Chair persuaded Professor Wan to carry on working after his retirement in 2022. Since then, he has continued teaching on a renewable yearly contract. Without realising it, he started his 35th year of service. As society continues to evolve, he and his colleagues have kept revising the curriculum to better serve students’ changing needs. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, has radically reshaped modes of learning, and the Department of Mathematics has felt its impact keenly. Professor Wan jokes that even the most difficult problems can now be solved brilliantly by AI, making “homework entirely pointless”. As a result, some professors have decided to abolish routine assignments or change to classwork, while retaining traditional pen-and-paper examinations.
Professor Wan considers himself fortunate. Many of his friends have attained impressive career success, yet not all of them are able to derive true enjoyment from their work, which has made him appreciate how rare it is to genuinely love what one does. “I have never had to look for a job. I only wrote the application letter after I was invited for applying this position.” What has kept him at CUHK all these years is its close-knit community – not only his colleagues and students but also his basketball buddies.
Even in his student years, Professor Wan was already a member of the University basketball team. They triumphed in Hong Kong’s 1984–85 Intercollegiate Basketball Competition, then in 1985 travelled to Nanjing University to compete in national university basketball tournament, the Jinling Cup. Despite facing national-level athletes, the team still secured sixth place. Besides teaching and research, he also joined New Asia College’s staff basketball team. His teammates have become lifelong friends, among them Professor Henry Wong Nai-ching. After Professor Wong became head of New Asia College, Professor Wan continued to support the College’s administration and subsequently served as Associate Head, a role he holds to this day. “CUHK has given me so much,” he concludes. “I hope I can continue to give something back.”
By Ella Cheung
Photos by Yau Hung-kee, courtesy of interviewees
