Criminology
Professor Matthew Manning is a criminological economist and future crime scholar. He was previously a full Professor of Criminology at the Australian National University. He has worked within the fields of criminology and economics for two decades. His current research focusses on how new technologies can be exploited by criminals to undertake money laundering, terrorism financing and fraud. Further, his empirical research evaluates strategies that can be employed by criminal justice actors to respond to these new and complex crimes. As a future crime scholar, he is committed to advancing knowledge about: (1) how individuals commit future crimes; (2) the processes that can be adopted to make committing future crimes more difficult, riskier and less rewarding; and (3) the tools that assist government and industry in making strategic economic decisions that create efficiency and enhance return on investment. He has published over 150 book chapters and papers within the fields of criminology, economics and public policy and has developed a number of economic tools that are beginning to incorporate machine learning algorithms. The cost benefit tools are currently hosted and used by a number of government agencies such as the College of Policing U.K (https://www.college.police.uk/research/practical-evaluation-tools). He has also developed online economic APPs to assist criminal justice actors in developing the economic evidence to make informed policy decisions (https://manningcba.digital).
Prof. Dennis S.W. WONG, Ph.D., is currently Professor of Criminology & Social Work at Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He served as an associate dean at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences from 2012-2019 and the Acting University Librarian from 2019-2020. His areas of teaching and research are criminology, youth studies, parents-child relationships, conflict management, and restorative justice. Prof Wong is honorary consultant on youth drugs abuse, school bullying, and offenders’ rehabilitation for governmental organizations in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. He is one of the founding members of Asian Criminological Society, an active member of Asia Pacific Forum of Restorative Justice, and chairman / board member for a number of non-governmental organizations. Apart from publishing articles in local and international journals, he has published six books related to youth delinquency, school bullying, alternative to prosecution, mediation, and restorative justice. His areas of teaching and research are criminology, youth studies, parent-child relationships, conflict management, and restorative justice.
Prof Rebecca W.Y. Wong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong.
Rebecca’s research interests concern the intersections of green criminology, illegal trade in protected & endangered wildlife, animal abuse, criminal networks and issues of trust in the underworld. Her work has been supported by the Research Grants Council, the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office, and the Environmental Conservation Fund.
She has published in peer-reviewed journals in the criminology discipline, including British Journal of Criminology, Journal of Criminology (originally called the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology), Trends in Organised Crime, Aggression and Violent Behaviour and Deviant Behavior. Her book The Illegal Wildlife Trade in China: Understanding Distribution Networks received the Distinguished Book Award from the Asian Criminological Society.
Rebecca holds a DPhil in Sociology from the University of Oxford. In collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, she was awarded a Visiting Professorship by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also an associate fellow of the Extra Legal Governance Institute at the University of Oxford.
Prof. Lena Zhong, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the City University of Hong Kong. Her research interest includes Chinese policing, crime prevention, drug abuse and crime, recidivism, and quantitative analysis of crime data.
Applied Sociology
Prof. Jacky Cheung, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interest includes quality of life, moral development, work and management, citizenship, and youth resilience. He is an expert in applied sociological research and particularly specialised in quantitative data and statistical analysis.
Dr. Sai-fu Fung obtained his PhD from the University of Warwick. Dr. Fung teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to social research methods, digital sociology, political sociology, social problems, and issues in Chinese society. His research interests are in the fields of computational social science, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), digital health, and sports.
Prof. HO Wing Chung, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interest includes social problems and social, development in Chinese societies, and social and sociological theories.
Mr. Stephen Ma is a Lecturer of Sociology at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include the sociology of the Internet, evaluation research, and sociology of work and organization.
Prof. Eileen Tsang, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the City University of Hong Kong. Her research interest includes cultural and political sociology of China’s emerging middle class, the sociology of gender and sexuality, sociology of consumption and popular culture, sociology of sex work, and migration, labor, and crime.
Psychology
I worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Education (Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences) and the Institute of Human Performance at the University of Hong Kong before joining the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong in 2013. My research interests include 1) Language processing, 2) Speech production, 3) Speech motor learning and control, 4) Stress and speech performance, 5) Visual word recognition, and 6) Communication disorders. I use both behavioral and cognitive neuroscience approaches in my study.
My research focuses on aging and work, with emphases on emotional well-being of middle-aged workers, and psychological adjustment to retirement.
Prof. Hui-Fang Chen is currently an Associate Professor in the City University of Hong Kong. She obtained a PhD degree from Quantitative Research Methods from the University of Denver and a Master's degree from Department of Psychology in the National Chung Cheng University with a Certificate of Elementary School Teacher from the Education Bureau in Taiwan. Her research mainly focuses on survey design and response behaviors in survey questionnaires as well as child development. Her research work includes psychometrics, Rasch analysis, item response theory and applied measurement in education, psychology and medicine.
Creativity has been a fascinating research topic for me as it often opens up new opportunities for interdisciplinary as well as cross cultural study.
Prof. Anna Hui is currently an associate professor and also the coordinator of the BDSS First Year Experience at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong. Research interests include creativity and innovation; motivation and self-regulation, gifted and creativity education, lifespan development in creativity. She also servesd as the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee of Reviewing the Curriculum Guide of Early Childhood Education, Curriculum Development Council of the Education Bureau, HKSAR.
I received my PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford. My research interests are in social cognition, focusing on the impact of social factors (social experiences, culture, etc.) on information processing, as well as the underlying mechanisms of information processing. I use a viariety of research methods such as behavioural, EEG, and surveys.
Prof. Julian Lai obtained his Bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Toronto. He joined the City University of Hong Kong to start his research career after graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a Ph.D. in psychoneuroimmunology. In addition to research on the psychophysiology of stress, he also engaged in research on topics associated with personality and social psychology, health psychology, and environmental psychology. One of Prof. Lai's major contributions is the adoption of salivary cortisol as a biomarker to examine the health impact of personal and interpersonal characteristics in Chinese populations. He is also one of the few scholars who pioneered research on the psychosocial determinants of pro-environmental behavior in the Chinese people. His major publications appear primarily in international journals in psychology. Prof. Lai has been serving as an expert reviewer for a number of prestigious journals in psychology and related disciplines. He was the Editor of the official journal of the Hong Kong Psychological Society (2009-2012) and is a former president of the Hong Kong Psychological Society (2004-2005). He has been an honorary research fellow of the Center on Behavioral Health of the University of Hong Kong.
Prof. Lai also has extensive experience in teaching and program planning, especially in taught postgraduate programs. He served as the program leader of the Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology for a number of years and was in charge of converting the program to the MSocSc in Applied Psychology in 2009. He has been serving as the program leader of the master program since then. Prof. Lai's teaching expertise concentrates in areas such as biological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology (e.g., the interaction between the social environment and psychological processes in determining risk perception). He has also served as the external examiner of various courses and programs offered by other universities in Hong Kong.
Gilbert Lau received his MSSc in Applied Psychology at CityUHK and BMath in Financial Analysis & Risk Management at University of Waterloo. Prior to joining CityUHK, Gilbert was a research fellow at the Centre for Child Development at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), where he facilitated numerous research projects on children with special education needs, such as autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Gilbert was also a part-time lecturer for several research courses in the nursing division of the School of Continuing Education at HKBU.
Kin-Kit (Ben) Li joined the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences (formerly Department of Applied Social Studies) at City University of Hong Kong since 2009. He received his Ph.D. in sport and exercise psychology from Oregon State University in 2008. His research interests include sport and exercise psychology, physical activity promotion, vaccination, social gerontology, health communication, time perspective, and life-course theories.
I am a registered clinical psychologist in Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom with my PhD training completed in the University of Hong Kong. My research and clinical interests are mostly concerned with the effects and mechanisms of sleep and circadian rhythm on daytime functions, including mental health wellbeing, social-cognitive-affective functions and behavioural outcomes. I primarily work with young people and focus on issues affecting youth wellbeing, including adjustment with life changes, identity and diversity, body image and self-evaluation, and neurocognitive development.
I conduct experimental and longitudinal observational studies to assess the directional relationship between sleep and circadian rhythm with daytime functions and wellbeing issues. My recent projects looked into the factors (e.g. healthy sleep pattern, exercise and physical activity, body image concern, sexual diversity) affecting healthy cognitive and emotional development in youth.
Prof. Wang is a social psychologist, focusing on three broad research themes: 1) Objectification and Dehumanization; 2) Immoral Behaviour, Aggression, and Self-Interested Behaviour; 3) Inequality, Social Power, Social Dominance, and Hierarchy.
She uses a combination of methods, including laboratory and online experiments (e.g., face-perception, economic games, and behavioural paradigms), quasi-experiments/ special sample studies, surveys, and using ecological and archival data (e.g., Google Ngram).
Sam Ye obtained his PhD from The University of Hong Kong. Before joining City University of Hong Kong, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include human values, social beliefs, positive psychology, and psychometrics.
I obtained a PhD degree in Psychology at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and an MPhil degree in Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with a research focus on the processing and measurement of theory of mind in adults. I have also been involved in research on social and cognitive development during early and middle childhood, as well as STEM education in Hong Kong.
Prof. Nancy Xiaonan Yu is a health psychologist with training in public health. Her research program has focused on resilience in adversities, by examining the resilience process and associated factors at the individual, dyadic, family, and community levels. Her resilience-oriented studies involve chronic illnesses (e.g., HIV, cancer, coronary heart disease), acculturation (e.g., migration, cross-border adjustment), losses (e.g., parental absence, bereavement), challenges (e.g., discrimination and stigma, parenting stress, aging), and crisis (e.g., natural disasasters). In addition, she has applied the community-based participatory research approach to develop and implement culturally sensitive interventions to promote resilience in stressful populations. With strong passion for interdisciplinary research, Prof. Yu has been working closely with researchers and practitioners in social work, public health, data science, and biomedical science.
I received my Ph.D. degree in Psychology from Dept. of Psychology at National University of Singapore. My research spans several areas in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on decision-making and social reasoning in different populations. I use model-based neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI/EEG) and paradigms from behavioral economics to better understand the neurocomputational bases of human decision-making in social contexts.
I earned my Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2023. Before joining CityU in April 2025, I was a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute on Aging at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where I contributed to the Affective Neuroscience Project of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) longitudinal study. My research employs a multi-method approach to examine how sociocultural factors shape emotional well-being. My overarching goal is to understand the mechanisms through which emotional well-being contributes to long-term health across diverse cultural and environmental contexts.
Social Work and Counselling
Research Interests/Areas
- Youth related concerns and issues
- Social work development in China
- Life of young migrant workers in China
- Significance of fieldwork practice
- Qualitative research methods
Professor Sylvia Kwok is Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences (SS) at the City University of Hong Kong. Sylvia obtained her Bachelor and Master Degree in Social Work from the University of Hong Kong, and her PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is currently Associate Dean in the Chow Yei Ching School of Graduate Studies. She has served as Associate Head (Postgraduate Education and Research) in SS from 2022 to 2023. She is listed among the top 2% of the most highly cited scientists in Social Work in the world in 2022 and 2023, according to metrics compiled by Stanford University.
Sylvia’s research mainly focuses on the family ecological and positive psychological factors that are related to anxiety, depression, suicide, and wellbeing of children and adolescents. She has published over 70 papers related to children and adolescent mental health issues, parenting and positive education in high-impact international refereed journals. She has got over HK$132M research grants from government and non-government funding sources. From 2021 to 2024, she got 3 General Research Fund projects funded by the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong. She has supervised 9 PhD students, 6 have graduated, and 2 of them got the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship.
As the convenor of the Positive Education Laboratory, Sylvia has collaborated with over 300 local schools (from pre-primary schools to universities), social welfare agencies, and corporates to promote positive education for the students, teachers, parents, employees, and the community. She has published over 10 manuals on positive education that have been uploaded to the positive education laboratory website http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/ss_posed.
Sylvia was granted the Second Class National Teaching Achievement Award in the 2022 Higher Education (Undergraduate) Award by the Ministry of Education in China, the Teaching Award (Team) by the University Grants Committee in 2021, Teaching Excellence Award Finalist (Individual) in 2021, Teaching Innovation Award (Team) in 2019 and Excellence in Knowledge Transfer Award in 2013 by the City University of Hong Kong. She also got the Distinguished Alumni Award (Social Sciences) from the University of Hong Kong in 2020. Locally, Sylvia is Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Social Work. She has been the assessment panel member of RGC Competitive Research Funding Schemes for the Local Self-financing Degree Sector (Humanities and Social Sciences) since 2021. Internationally, she is the regional representative lead in the Positive Education Division of the International Positive Psychology Association.
Professor Ilex Lam is a multi-disciplinary leader in finance, technology for good, and impact investing. He currently serves as Professor of Practice at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), Chairman of the iEnterprise Foundation, and Director of the Fullness Social Enterprise Society. With decades of experience in the global asset management businesses, he co-directs the Lab for Impact Financing and Transformation at CityUHK.
Since 2012, Professor Lam has been dedicating to empowering underprivileged communities through the iEnterprise Foundation, promoting sustainable social business models, equal opportunity for people with disability and ethic minority in Hong Kong. A strong advocate for social innovation, he champions the principle of "leaving no one behind" in pursuit of sustainable development, with a particular focus on fintech's role in creating inclusive smart cities.
Previously, as a Senior Advisor to the UNDP on SDG Impact Finance in 2018, he played a key role in shaping and implementing policies for inclusive growth and is recognised as a leading voice in sustainable investment across Asia. He is a contributing author of also a co-author of the books , Tripartite Collaborative Model Value Creation Experience of iEnterprise with Corporate and Nongovernmental Organization, The Essence and Measurement of Organisational Efficiency, published by Springer, Sustainable Investment: Impact in Asia” published by Asia Asset Management in 2019, and “ESG: An Illuminating Journey”published by the International Chamber of Sustainable Development in 2023.
Prof. Dennis S.W. WONG, Ph.D., is currently Professor of Criminology & Social Work at Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He served as an associate dean at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences from 2012-2019 and the Acting University Librarian from 2019-2020. His areas of teaching and research are criminology, youth studies, parents-child relationships, conflict management, and restorative justice. Prof Wong is honorary consultant on youth drugs abuse, school bullying, and offenders’ rehabilitation for governmental organizations in Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. He is one of the founding members of Asian Criminological Society, an active member of Asia Pacific Forum of Restorative Justice, and chairman / board member for a number of non-governmental organizations. Apart from publishing articles in local and international journals, he has published six books related to youth delinquency, school bullying, alternative to prosecution, mediation, and restorative justice. His areas of teaching and research are criminology, youth studies, parent-child relationships, conflict management, and restorative justice.
Prof. Siu Ming CHAN worked as a frontline social worker in community settings for eight years before embarking on his academic journey. He served the underprivileged, including homeless people, low-income families living in cubicles and subdivided flats, poor children, and the elderly, through direct service, group work, and community organizing. He also conducted policy research and surveys related to vulnerable groups facing poverty, housing problems, and other community issues.
Professor Annis Lai Chu FUNG is a distinguished scholar whose research focuses on school bullying, child and adolescent aggression, student suicide, young people's mental health, and evidence-based counselling interventions. Her pioneering adoption of the two-factor model in school bullying has led to innovative interventions targeting reactive and proactive aggression, significantly reducing aggressive behaviours in over 70,000 students across more than 200 schools, including 20,000 high-risk individuals. Her work boasts the largest dataset globally in this field. Professor Fung has received numerous accolades, including the QS Reimagine Education Silver Winner Award from UPenn Wharton School, the HERO University Leader Award from Auburn University, and multiple awards for Teaching Excellence, Research Impact, and Knowledge Transfer at CityU, underscoring her global and local impact in research and teaching. Her average Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (TLQ) score of 4.7 out of 5.0 frequently places her among the top 5% of educators recognized by the Provost at CityU.
Prof. Shen (Lamson) Lin received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW). With interdisciplinary training in social work (FIFSW), gerontology (Institute for Life Course & Aging), and population health (Dalla Lana School of Public Health), Lamson's scholarship centers around social determinants of health, minority ageing, health and mental health equity.
More recently, Lamson's research has been using statistical and computational techniques to examine the mechanisms, risk and protective factors, through which the COVID-19 pandemic influences individuals' psychosocial wellbeing (e.g., anxiety disorders, loneliness, stigma, and vaccine hesitancy). As a first-generation college graduate from his family, Lamson recognizes social/structural vulnerability (e.g., racialized identity, migration status, job precairty) in shaping resource distribution, power dynamics and consequantial health inequalities across the human life course.
To date, Lamson has published 19 SCI/SSCI-indexed scholarly articles and his representative papers can be found in top-tier peer-reviewed journals across health and social sciences, including Journal of Affective Disorders, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (Oxford University Press), Ageing & Society (Cambridge University Press), Journal of Social Work, Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. Prior to joining CityU, he was a course instructor teaching Social Work Practice in Health (MSW postgraduate course) at FIFSW since 2020.
Lamson has received multiple academic awards from professional organizations in North America, including the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) - 2018 Best Abstract Award (Gero-Ed Track), Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR)- 2019 Travel Grant, Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers (SRHP)- 2019 Best Original Research Award - and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) - 2020 Travel grant for CPHA Conference.
Prof. Michelle H.Y. Shum currently is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at City University of Hong Kong. Previously, she served as an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), where she was appointed Programme Director of the Master of Social Science in Social Work(Full Time) program. Before joining HKBU, she was an honorary lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at The University of Hong Kong (HKU).
Michelle holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL). Prior to awarding the PhD from The University of Hong Kong, she obtained the Juris Doctor. She has taught courses on legal knowledge for social workers at both HKU and HKBU for over 10 years, focusing on the intersection of legal principles and social work practice. She has invited by various non-profit organizations to provide training to social workers and senior management regarding ethical concerns and legal liabilities in social work services delivery.
Her research spans macro and micro social work practice, with expertise in law and social policy, welfare and social work ethics, socio-legal studies of third-sector development, social service management, youth work, community development, and elderly care. By incorporating legal frameworks into her analysis, she enhances her interdisciplinary approach to social policy studies, governance and public administration, welfare systems, nonprofit management, and macro-level social work practice.
In addition to academic contributions, Michelle has collaborated with the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and various social service organizations to establish professional service standards and internal operational guidelines. This work is grounded in a commitment to integrating legal and ethical frameworks, providing practical recommendations for social work practitioners, and promoting effective and ethically sound practices both in Hong Kong and internationally.
Jerf Yeung joined the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at City University of Hong Kong in 2013. He is a registered social worker and obtained his PhD in social work from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before teaching in university, he has engaged in social work services and related research since he graduated in social work from City University of Hong Kong and worked in the fields of youth, children and family, and elderly services. His research interests include family and children, religion and health, and adolescent health.
Nelson Tam, a Registered Social Worker (RSW), specializes in working with children and adolescents and their families, with a focus on residential and school settings. He holds a B.S.W. and M.Soc. Sci. from the University of Hong Kong and a PhD from the City University of Hong Kong.
In 2022, Nelson obtained a certificate in Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy. He is also a Certified Facilitator of Compassionate Mind Training. He is working towards becoming a Certified Teacher through the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program at the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and Awareness Training Institute. Additionally, he is pursuing certification as a Focusing Professional (Trainer).
Nelson's areas of expertise include compassion-based intervention, strength-based counselling, and Satir family intervention, particularly in school and residential environments for children and adolescents. His research interests encompass Artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education, adolescent mental health, and well-being.