Cesar Jung-Harada is a Senior Lecturer for the Design+ Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Programme. He teaches both technical and theoretical aspects of design with an emphasis on the invention with social and environmental impact.

Cesar was educated at the Ecole Boulle in Paris, obtained his first Master from the École Nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Animation Film, his second Master's degree in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Arts in London. Cesar was a Researcher and Project Leader at MIT Senseable City Lab. Cesar was trained in Design Thinking by George Kembel (co-founder of Stanford d-School) and in Rapid Prototyping by Tom Chi (co-founder of Google X).

Cesar is the Founder and Director of “MakerBay”, a Hong Kong network of innovation centers. Cesar is the Founder and CEO of the ocean robotic startup “Scoutbots” developing ocean sensors and transport technology to explore and protect the oceans, mostly known for the Open Source shape-shifting sailing robot “Protei” that won the StartmeupHK Grand Award. Cesar’s work has been exhibited at the V&A, at the Musée des arts et métiers, and the team Open_Sailing he led won the Ars Electronica Golden Nica with the concept of the “International Ocean Station”. Cesar is a TED Senior Fellow and his most popular talk has more than 1.7 million views, translated into more than thirty languages. Cesar was the opening plenary speaker of the COP21 (2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference) about ocean innovation before French President Hollande, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Jack Ma. Cesar is a Trustee of the Board of Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

Cesar's current research includes Impact Invention, Social Innovation, Critical and Speculative Design, ocean exploration and conservation technologies, creative community building.

Peter Sidorko has enjoyed a career in academic libraries spanning thirty-five years with eighteen of those at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is currently the University Librarian at HKU (2011- ) and was previously the Deputy University Librarian (2001-2010). Peter is also a past President-elect, of the Hong Kong Library Association (2010-2011).

Peter is an avid believer in the power of libraries and their ability to shape a person, a community, a society, all for the better. He has presented at almost 100 conferences and seminars, several of which have been published as proceedings. His recent (October, 2019) keynote presentation at the 8th Rizal Library International Conference was entitled 21st Century libraries and librarians: Creating a better world and his recent article Information literacy for a better world (Library Journal (China) (2019, Vol.38. No.8)) attest to his belief in the power of libraries.

Gray Kochhar-LindgrenLindgren is Professor and Director of the Common Core at the University of Hong Kong. A Fulbright Scholar and the recipient of several teaching awards, most recently from HKU and the UGC as the team-leader for Transdisciplinarity-in-Action, he has also taught in Switzerland, Germany, and the United States. Having initiated GLADE (Global Liberal Arts Design Experiments) to encourage international partnerships, he is also collaborating with colleagues across campus on The Passion Project: Creating Work You Love and on an undergraduate research project organized around three of the SDGs: Critical Zones: Gender, Cities, and Well-Being. The author, most recently, of Urban Arabesques: Philosophy, Hong Kong, Transversality, he is currently working on Wilding the University; Noir: Philosophy, Art, Ecology; and Pinxtos: Essays and Aphorisms.

King L. Chow, Professor of Life Science, Chem. & Biol Eng. and Public Policy at HKUST, has a background of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics.  At HKUST, he served as the Academic Director of the Common Core Program, Directors of the Molecular Biomedical Sciences Program, Bioengineering Program, and International Research Experience Program. He was the Director of Interdisciplinary Programs Office overseeing the development of Environment and Sustainability, Public Policy, Risk Management and Business Intelligence, Technology Management and Innovation Programs, and promoting Design Thinking. He holds the position of Dean of Students covering all student support activities and heads the Center for Development of the Gifted and Talented that nurtures and supports gifted students. His own research focuses on neural development, synthetic and evolutionary biology.  He actively engages in developing academic programs at HKUST and other institutions, and serves on advisory boards of different Foundations and Universities.  He has taught a broad range of subjects from science, engineering, social science and humanity with a focus on problem-solving. He delivers classes in traditional lectures, exploratory-project-based courses, MOOC and extensive flipped classes at both undergraduate and graduate level, earning him the School of Science Teaching Award, the Michael G. Gale Medal of distinguished teaching at HKUST. 

Yuki Chan is the Project Manager of the HKU Sustainability Office. She works extensively on students and staff engagement and collaborate with various stakeholders to push forward sustainability vision and goals on the HKU campus. Projects she leads include the Ditch Disposable Campaign, the Disposable Plastic Free Campus Policy and the HKU Edible Spaces initiative. She has keen interest in sustainable agriculture, and has attained the Permaculture Design Certificate by the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in 2018.

Carrie Chan is a seasoned business executive with a passion for the environment, particularly the impact of our food supply on the planet.  Her expertise is in general management and project delivery.  She managed major real estate developments from ground zero to full operation.  She co-founded Avant Meats, the first cultivated meat technology company of Hong Kong, China.
Avant Meats is a biotechnology company with patent-pending solutions that enable businesses to produce animal meat and protein without raising or catching and slaughtering the animal.  The Company’s pilot products are fish meat and marine proteins.  Thanks to our technology, we customise the nutritional profile of our cultivated fish meat while keeping them free from heavy metals, microplastics, radioactive contaminants, parasites, and antibiotics.

Luisa Mok attained her Doctor of Arts in Design from Aalto University, Finland. Besides, she also has a background in anthropology. Having her first career in industrial design industry, her experiences in design practice and academic research have built up her strength in bridging the two in order to offer practical, elegant solutions for real-life problems. She has been teaching in the Division of Industrial Design in the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, and now she is residing in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong. In the technology university, she develops design courses and research merging design and technology for the greater socio-environmental good. About research work, Luisa focuses on strategic design for sustainability transitions, which belongs to the emergent research work in sustainability design research community.

Waltraut Ritter is founder of Knowledge Dialogues, specializing in applied research on innovation and knowledge society, and works for government agencies, public and private research institutes and international organisations such as OECD, UNESCAP, and UNESCO on SDGs and learning cities. She served on the Digital Strategy Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong government between 2010-2017, and is a member in the International Council on Knowledge Management
She has a M.A. in Information Science from the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and an M.B.A. in International Business from Anglia University, Cambridge. She was visiting professor for knowledge management at the NTU School of Communications, and is adjunct faculty at the Singapore Management University.
She currently works on a multi-stakeholder programme on urban data and sustainable mobility in Hong Kong.

Dr Esther Woo is the Deputy University Librarian / Fung Ping Shan Librarian at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to taking on this role, she had supervised the provision of lending services and administrative services in the University Libraries. In support of HKU Sustainability Strategy 2030, she is coordinating several initiatives to advocate UN’s Sustainability Development Goals through reading promotion, library exhibitions and events.

Dr Nicol F.C. Pan is the Head of Tsz Shan Institute (TSI), a progressive spiritual organization dedicated to the efforts of making contemplative wisdom, compassion and ethics relevant and accessible to the contemporary societies. She steers the educational and research new initiatives in spirituality and innovation, the application of contemplative practices and care ethics in well-being, health care, sustainable development and leadership, and the intersection between spirituality and other disciplinary fields such as relational art and positive psychology. Prior to that, Nicol was the Associate Director of the Common Core Curriculum at the University of Hong Kong, spearheading technological innovations and experiential based projects in the interdisciplinary contexts. She has worked in the field of education for many years with a particular focus on pedagogical innovations and eLearning, including the application of Virtual Reality technology. In her past capacity as an educational researcher and instructional designer, Nicol worked across academic disciplines, as well as with non-academic institutions and commercial companies in developing eLearning programs, including Cathay Pacific and the Police Academy.

Having worked for a wide range of education, NGO and think-tank institutions, Benita has abundant experience in working with people of diverse background and culture and has a wealth of expertise in community outreach and social innovation. Previously she has served in Youth Arch Foundation, Earthwatch Institute and MWYO. In 2018, she founded Encompass HK, a social enterprise to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on SDG 3 Wellness, SDG 5 Gender Equality and SDG 12 Responsible Consumption. Benita is regularly interviewed by local and international media on SDG issues, and impactfully uses these channels to advance and promote the causes. She recently spoke at a TEDx event on her experience as a scuba diving instructor as well as on diversity and inclusion. Her other community commitments include serving as a Board Member of AIDS Concern Hong Kong, Education Director of Pink Alliance, Mentor for RESOLVE Foundation and Admission Interviewer for UWCLPC.

Joseph Chan is the Associate Director of Centre for Asian Entrepreneurship and Business Value and is leading the ‘Entrepreneurship, Design and Innovation’ programme at HKU Business School. His expertise is on design thinking and digital Economy related to blockchain technology and cross-disciplinary innovation strategy. Joseph has been researching decentralized trust computing technology and its market adoption, advising the commercialization of this technology application. He has been a speaker at the public events and masterclasses in San Francisco, London, Beijing, Zhuhai, Macau and Hong Kong.
Joseph is a professional architect and has involved in a number of smart city, urban design and architecture projects in Europe, Middle East and China including the Saadiyat Island at Abu Dhabi and the special economic zone, Dubai International Financial Centre, at UAE, the international and local environmental retail store development roll-out for Tesco UK, and the ‘Innovative Design and Smart Construction for Schools’ in HK.
Joseph is also an educator who inspires the students, across different levels and disciplines, to be creative. The students would use the design thinking to solve business, design, social and technical problems – they are aspired to be innovative and to develop their own authentic style.