Professor Wei Shyy was the President of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2018 to 2022. He first joined HKUST in August 2010 as Provost and Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Prior to this, he was Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson Collegiate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Michigan. He was previously with the University of Florida and GE Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York.

He was the Principal Investigator of several multi-institutional research projects, funded by the US Government and industries, on future space transport, bio-inspired flight, and computational science.  He is General Editor of the Cambridge Aerospace Book Series published by the Cambridge University Press; and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, a major reference work published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Since joining HKUST, he led and promoted numerous initiatives, including a long-term strategic plan with dual emphasis on curiosity-driven and mission-encouraged pursuit to fuse disciplinary as well as cross-disciplinary programs to comprehensively address issues challenging the society and the humanity.  Built on these conceptual foundations, HKUST, in partnership with the Guangzhou City and the Guangzhou University, has established HKUST(GZ) under a “Unified HKUST, Complementary Campuses” framework.  

Professor Shyy is an agenda contributor of the World Economic Forum, and has received awards for his research and professional contributions, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 2003 Pendray Aerospace Literature Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2005 Heat Transfer Memorial Award, and The Engineers’ Council (Sherman Oaks, CA) 2009 Distinguished Educator Award.  In 2021, the French Government made him an Officer of the Legion of Honor. In 2023, the International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES) honored him the Satya N. Atluri Award.