Prof John Ellis is a British theoretical physicist, currently holding the Clerk Maxwell Professorship of Theoretical Physics at King's College in London. He graduated from King's College, Cambridge, in 1971 with a Ph.D. in theoretical high-energy particle physics. After two post-doctoral positions at SLAC and Caltech, he settled in CERN (Geneva) and held a permanent position there from 1978. He was twice Deputy Division Leader for the Theory Division, and served as Division Leader for the period 1988–1994. He was a founding member of the LEPC and LHCC projects, and is currently chairing the committee investigating physics opportunities for future proton accelerators. He is also a member of the extended CLIC (Compact Linear Collider) Steering Committee and of the TLEP Steering Group.

Prof Ellis's research interests focus on the phenomenological aspects of elementary particle physics with important contributions to astrophysics, cosmology and quantum gravity. A substantial part of his extensive work relate directly to experiment: interpreting results of searches for new particles and exploring the physics that could be done with future accelerators. He is accredited with being one of the pioneers of particle astrophysics: the interface between particle physics and cosmology. He has authored nearly a thousand scientific papers, some with over fifty thousand citations. He is the second most-cited theoretical physicist in the World and is currently very active in efforts to understand the Higgs-like particle discovered recently at CERN.

Prof Ellis is an eloquent speaker, frequently invited to give public and educational lectures on particle physics and related topics. He is also well known for his relentless efforts to involve non-European nations and institutions in CERN scientific and technological activities.

Prof Ellis was awarded the Maxwell Medal (1982) and the Paul Dirac Prize (2005) by the Institute of Physics. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1985 and of the Institute of Physics in 1991, and is an Honorary Fellow of King's College Cambridge and of the Serbian Physical Society. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Southampton, Uppsala University, the St Kliment Ohridski University, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and the University of Cape Town, and twice won the First Award in the Gravity Research Foundation essay competition: in 1999 and 2005. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to science and technology.

Prof Tony F Chan is the President and Chair Professor in Computer Science & Engineering, and Mathematics at HKUST.

Prior to joining HKUST in September 2009, Prof Chan was Assistant Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in charge of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, which is the largest directorate at NSF, and guided and managed research funding in astronomy, physics, chemistry, mathematical science, material science, and multidisciplinary activities. Before this, Prof Chan was a faculty member at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1986 to 2006, and Dean of Physical Sciences from 2001 to 2006.

Prof Chan is an expert in mathematical image processing and computer vision. He has published over 200 refereed papers and is one of the world's most cited mathematicians. He is also an active member of many scientific societies, including Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, President's Advisory Council of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Committee of 100, the Selection Committee for the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, and the Steering Committee of the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Government.

Prof Chan received his BS and MS degrees from Caltech and his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University. He pursued postdoctoral research at Caltech, and was a faculty of Computer Science at Yale University before joining UCLA.

UC RUSAL (www.rusal.com) is the world’s largest producer of aluminium, in 2012 accounting for approximately 9% of global production of aluminium and 8% of alumina. UC RUSAL employs about 72,000 people in 19 countries, across 5 continents. UC RUSAL markets and sells its products primarily in the European, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, South East Asian and North American markets. UC RUSAL’s ordinary shares are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock code: 486), global depositary shares representing UC RUSAL’s ordinary shares are listed on the professional compartment of Euronext Paris (RUSAL for Reg S GDSs and RUAL for Rule 144A GDSs), and Russian depositary receipts that are issued on common shares of the Company are listed on Moscow Exchange (RUALR/RUALRS). Founded in March 2007, UC RUSAL is a result of the merger of RUSAL, SUAL, and the alumina assets of Glencore of Switzerland.

UC RUSAL’s current capacity could produce 4.7 million tonnes of aluminium, 11.5 million tonnes of alumina and 80 thousand tonnes of foil per annum. RUSAL is comprised of 16 aluminium smelters, 12 alumina refineries, 8 bauxite mines, and 4 foil mills. The Company also has three aluminium powder metallurgy plants and produces cryolite, aluminium fluoride and cathodes. RUSAL has its own R&D and engineering capabilities and owns the RA-300, RA-400 and RA-500 technologies.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), situated in Hong Kong, China, is a top-ranked university in Asia. Established in 1991, HKUST has five schools - Science, Engineering, Business and Management, Humanities and Social Science, as well as the Fok Ying Tung Graduate School in Nansha, Mainland China. The University has eleven research institutes, among them the Institute for Advanced Study of HKUST, set up to foster cross-discipline collaboration among the top scientists and scholars in the world. Currently, there are about 6,200 undergraduate students and 3,700 postgraduate students. As a research university, HKUST focuses on five areas of frontier research, namely nano science and technology; biological sciences and biotechnology; electronics, wireless and information technology; environment and sustainable development as well as management education and research.

As a major initiative of HKUST's 2005-2020 Strategic Plan, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge to meet the great challenges of the 21st century. IAS aims to bring together the most brilliant minds to drive cutting-edge discovery and scholarship. Its goal is to be a premier intellectual center and a platform for innovation and scientific development in Hong Kong and the Greater China region. IAS has 32 Visiting Professors, 15 Senior Fellows, 4 Senior Visiting Fellows, 3 Affiliate Members, 2 Fellows and 6 Junior Fellows from diverse disciplines who champion collaborative, inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional projects in high-impact areas. Since its establishment in 2006, it has sponsored close to 400 lectures, seminars, conferences and workshops. Guest speakers include Nobel Laureates, members of National Academies, world renowned academics and researchers, senior government officials and business leaders.

"The Power of Focus: Turning Opportunity into Success"
Guest Speaker: Oleg Deripaska, CEO of UC RUSAL
Date: 21 September 2010
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"Equilibrium in the Labour Market with Search Frictions"
Guest Speaker: Christopher Pissarides, Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics of
London School of Economics and Political Science,
2010 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
Date: 21 March 2011
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"The Changing Dynamics of the World"
Guest Speaker: Jim O'Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Date: 14 October 2011
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"Making a Difference, a Stitch at a Time"
Guest Speaker: Marjorie Yang, Chairman of Esquel Group
Date: 3 May 2012
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"8.5 Billion Global Consumers by 2030: Opportunity or Looming disaster?"
Guest Speaker: Barry Cheung, Independent Non-Executive Director,
UC RUSAL Chairman, Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange
Date: 2 Nov 2012
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