Visiting Academics (since 1997)

Visiting Chair Professor in Fashion Design, ITC : 2003 to 2010
Prof. Edward Newton is Visiting Chair Professor of Fashion Design at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He combines an academic career in parallel with that of an internationally known Fashion and Textile Design/Marketing Consultant, spanning all areas of Fashion and Textiles. He considers that the two areas of academia and consultancy inter-relate successfully and provide the basis for his undoubted excellence in the area of Design and Marketing.

He has, over the past twenty-five years, held the posts of Chair Professor of Fashion Marketing and Merchandising, Head of ITC at PolyU; Professor and Head of Department of Fashion and Textiles, Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design at the Nottingham Trent University, UK. He had held visiting lecturer/professor post at many of the world's leading fashion and textiles institutes including visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art, London. Currently he is Honorary Professor at Donghua University, Shanghai; Fashion Institute of Design, Beijing; Chair of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI).

Prof. Newton's international experience and interests include research, consultancy and teaching. He has worked extensively in Europe, India, China, the Far East and the U.S.A. His main area of research is the globalisation of Fashion and Textile Design and associated areas of manufacturing and retailing.

Chair Professor in Polymer Science, ITC : October 2008 to October 2011
Prof. Robert Young was appointed as the Chair Professor of Polymer Science under Distinguished Scholars Scheme in 2008. His research interests include all aspects of the relationships between structure and mechanical properties of polymers and composites, and he has published a number of books and more than 280 papers in the field. He has a number of research programmes in collaboration with academics and industrial companies in the UK, Mainland Europe and Japan. The application of the technique of Raman spectroscopy to monitor deformation processes in high-performance fibres and composites has been developed and is now being extended to other materials such as carbon nanotubes and spider silk. More recently he has been concerned with the use of synchrotron micro-focus x-ray diffraction to follow fibre and composite deformation. His other research interests include the analysis of structure/property relationships in polymer-based laminates for use in packaging applications.

Visiting Professor, ITC : June 2008 to December 2009
Ph.D., Brighton Polytechnic, UK. Specialist in History and Theory of 19th and 20th century Design, Fashion and Textile Design History, and Design Theory and Cultural Studies.

Selected Publications: Design Issues (ed): Hong Kong design, 2003, Form/Work, Australia, 2000, The Cheongsam (Oxford University Press, 2000), Design Management Journal (1999), China Chic: East Meets West, contributor (1999). Chinese Dress 1700s–1900s contributor (1997), Dictionary of Women Artists, contributor (1997), Women's Art Journal (1995), Contemporary Fashion, contributor (1995). Visiting Fellowships: University of Western Sydney, Australia; Koeln International School of Design, Cologne. Awards: Hong Kong Polytechnic, Provisional Regional Council of Hong Kong. Affiliated: Hong Kong Designers Association, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacturers, Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers. Lectures internationally.

Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor, ITC : April 2009 to September 2009
Prof. Boris I. Yakobson was appointed as Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor in 2009. He is a world-leading expert in theory and computational modeling of materials nanostructures, their mechanics, defects, and relaxation mechanisms in particular. He is presently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry at Rice University, Houston, Texas. Prof. Yakobson obtained his first degree in Physics and Applied Mathematics from Novosibirsk State University, USSR, in 1976. In 1982 he received Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1982-1989 he worked as a Staff Scientist and then Head of Theoretical Chemistry Group at the Institute of Solid Materials of the Russian Academy. From 1990 he has spent one semester as a Visiting Scientist with Chemistry Department, Columbia University, New York, followed by nine years on the faculty of the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University. In 1999 Prof. Yakobson joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and from 2002 Department of Chemistry at Rice University. He has pioneered concepts of superplasticity in nanotubes, utility of the shell-model at the nanoscale (associated now with "Yakobson's paradox" in the literature). His most recent work predicting the boron buckyball B80 has received significant attention, and was featured in Nature, Chemical & Engineering News, Chemistry World, and other media sources. His research activities over the years have been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, NASA, Department of Defense, Army Research Office, Air Force Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, as well as private industry and foundations. This work resulted in over 150 publications in leading scientific journals, articles in popular magazines, six patents, and a pending patent application. Yakobson has mentored a number of PhD students and postdoctoral associates, and serves on the editorial boards of journals and steering committees (most recently, Department of Energy's Hydrogen Storage Center of Excellence).

Visiting Professor, ITC : October to November 2008
Prof. Michael Hann holds the Chair of Design Theory. He is Director of the University of Leeds International Textiles Archive (ULITA). He holds three degrees (BA, MPhil and PhD) and has been awarded Fellowships of the Textile Institute (FTI) and the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He has been involved in international consultancy since the 1980s, mainly through the British Council as well as various local agencies, particularly in Indonesia and Pakistan. In the main, this has involved advising small- and medium-sized companies on developing products for export. He has extensive experience also as an adviser on curriculum development (particularly in higher education institutions in Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Mauritius, Lithuania, Singapore and Poland). He supervises several PhD and Masters dissertations and is the module manager for the undergraduate modules Patterns of Culture and Design Theory.

Visiting Professor, ITC : February 2007 to January 2008
Prof. Annamma Joy has research interests in culture, consumption, and markets, marketing of the arts, naturalistic inquiry, ethnicity and marketing, gender and consumption, marketing and development, and marketing in a postmodern world.

Visiting Professor, ITC : August 2006 to August 2007
Prof. Diane Sparks is currently the Professor of the Department of Design & Merchandising of Colorado State University. Her teaching focuses are apparel design, textile design and CAD for apparel and textile design. Her research interests include cross-culture apparel and wearable art design.

Visiting Professor, ITC : December 2006 to September 2007
Prof. Angela Woods was appointed Head of Faculty in 1996. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art with an MDes in Fashion Design, Angela has combined design, consultancy and teaching, and plays an active roll in the Institute of Designers in Ireland, the U.K.'s H.E.F.C. Research Assessment Council and the London Institute Quality Review Committee. Prof. Woods continues to travel worldwide, visiting universities and colleges to lecture, attend conferences and promote the NCAD Faculty of Design and the work of its students. Prof. Woods is committed to enhancing Irelands third level design education provision by strategic academic and research development at BDes, MA and PhD level.