Impressed by the charisma of Professor Chia-Wei Woo, Founding President of HKUST, Naubahar became the first non-JUPAS student to attend the university. Naubahar describes his life at HKUST as an exciting educational journey, and thanks the university for the inspiring, all-round education it gave him.
After graduating and then completing his PhD in the USA, Naubahar returned to his alma mater where he is now the Acting Head of the Division of Public Policy. "It is my honor to come back and make a contribution to my Alma Mater – and to Hong Kong. I didn't hesitate," he adds. His research interests lay in the development of Hong Kong's innovation system, innovation and technology policy in Hong Kong, and the emergence of the innovation systems approach.
"Hong Kong is carving out a role for itself in the new knowledge-based global economy, and we are repositioning ourselves in a new relationship with Mainland China. My career goals are to help Hong Kong move forward at this important juncture in our history, and to inspire my students," says Naubahar. To this end, he has consulted for the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission to create a framework for assessing the impact of innovation on the Hong Kong economy. He also developed a massive open online course (MOOC) on "Science, Technology and Society in China," which launched on the Coursera platform in 2013 and was hailed as Asia's first MOOC. His accomplishments have earned him numerous grants, awards, honors and fellowships, including the HKUST School of Humanities and Social Science Best Teacher Award in 2009 and in 2016, and the Interdisciplinary Programs Office’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2020.
Know more about Naubahar's research here: