Prof Li Qiu, Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has recently been elected Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), a prestigious international recognition in the area of automatic control and systems engineering.

Only 17 people in the world were elected IFAC Fellows this year and Prof Qiu is the only one from Hong Kong. There are also only two other IFAC Fellows in Hong Kong, one of whom is Prof Xiren CAO, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering at HKUST.

IFAC started its Fellowship program in 2004, bestowing this honor annually to a restricted number of individuals in their different roles such as engineer, scientist, technical leader, or educator.

Prof Qiu was made a Fellow for his “outstanding and seminal contributions to robust control theory and to fundamental performance limitations in feedback control systems.”

Founded in 1957, IFAC is a multinational federation of National Member Organizations, each one representing the engineering and scientific societies related to automatic control in its own country. The Federation aims to promote the science and technology of control in the broadest sense in all systems, including engineering, physical, biological, social or economic systems - in both theory and application. At present, IFAC has members in 50 countries or regions worldwide.

Prof Qiu received his master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Toronto, and joined HKUST in 1993. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as an IEEE Control Systems Society Distinguished Lecturer.