Rector of Macau University Honoris Causa at NOVA

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa awarded an Honoris Causa degree to Wei Zhao, Rector of the University of Macau. The joint degree was given by Portuguese Universities and took place at the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa.

This initiative recognizes the academic and scientific profile of Wei Zhao, the importance of the relations between University of Macau and Portuguese Higher Education Institutions, improving students, faculty and researchers interchange between Portugal, Macau and People's Republic of China. Professor Wei Zhao is the Rector of Macau University since 2008. He has previously held other positions as Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the U.S., Director for the Division of Computer and Network Systems in the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Senior Associate Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University. Professor Zhao completed his undergraduate programme in physics at Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China, in 1977, and he later received his MSc and PhD degrees in Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1983 and 1986. During his academic career, he has also served as a faculty member at Shaanxi Normal University, Amherst College, the University of Adelaide, Texas A&M University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As an IEEE Fellow, Professor Zhao has made significant contributions in distributed computing, real-time systems, computer networks, and cyberspace security. In 2011, he was named by the Ministry of Science and Technology as the Chief Scientist of the national 973 Internet Project on cyber-physical networking systems.