At the invitation of the State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Prof. Thomas C. W. Mak from the Chinese University of Hong Kong(CUHK) visited Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM) in March 11th, 2010. During his stay, Prof. Mak delivered a seminar report entitled “Crystalline Silver(I) Complexes containing All-carbon and Carbon-rich Ethynide Ligands” and carried out detailed discussion with the research staff of FJIRSM.

At present, Prof. Mak is a Wei Lun Research Professor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He got his Ph.D in the University of British Columbia in 1963. When Prof. Thomas C. W. Mak visited mainland China in 1973 as a member of the first scholarly delegation from Hong Kong, he observed a research environment in need of significant improvement. Since then he has done whatever he can to help mainland researchers develop their capabilities. A renowned research chemist himself, and now Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Prof. Mak has been instrumental in attracting young mainland scholars to study and conduct research at CUHK.

In 2001 Prof. Mak was elected a member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences for his substantial contribution to the development of chemistry in mainland China. His own research focuses on crystal engineering, or the design and synthesis of structures at the molecular level, structural inorganic chemistry and coordination network assembly. He is a prolific author, with over 900 papers published in international journals. Meanwhile, Prof. Mak’s is now Member of the Editorial Boards of several internationally well-known scientific journals including Polyhedron, Crystal Engineering, Journal of Inclusion Phenomena, Journal of Cluster Science, Chinese Journal of Structural Chemistry, Chemical Journal of Chinese Universities, and Chinese Journal of Chemistry.