I would like to share the text of my eulogy presented at Professor Lau's Funeral on October 19, 2021.
It is extremely difficult for us to accept the fact that Professor Lau has left us so quickly. Before coming to this Funeral, my friends in the WeChat group, “This family from Pittsburgh,” asked me to represent them in this Funeral. Hence, I bring with me all their deep condolences and fond memories for Professor Lau. Why is Professor Lau so respected, loved, and missed by his students? I think the major reason is that he has made a huge difference in the lives of almost all his students. Without his enthusiastic support and generous help, it would have been very difficult for us to study in the US, receive our PH.D.s, and launch our careers. He was a prolific mathematician, a demanding teacher and an inspiring mentor. He always went the extra mile to assist his students. We not only admired him as our Professor, but also as a close friend. He often invited us to his house to have wonderful parties. Here I would like to commend his wife Eveline for her warm hospitality. Professor Lau’s tireless work and mentorship of his students has helped us achieve tremendous success. Today, from Pennsylvania to California, from Wisconsin to Georgia, his students work actively in the field of Mathematics and positively impact thousands of students’ lives. I would be remiss not to mention Professor Lau’s incredible achievement in leading the Department of Mathematics of Chinese University of Hong Hong, where in addition to helping the Department turn around during a quite chaotic period, he has trained dozens of PH. D.’s and Post-Doctors, and has made significant contributions in the field of Fractal Geometry. I have recently learned that memorial activities are held at that University and several other Universities in China to honor his unwavering legacy.
Professor Lau will always be in our heart. May he rest in peace.
It is with profound sorrow that I learned the passing of my dearest friend Ka-Sing Lau.Ka-Sing was far more than just a dear friend to me. He was also a mentor, a supporter, and a collaborator. I still vividly remember how we first met. Shortly after I came to Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 1989, I was introduced to the world of wavelets. But that was a totally new field to me, so I knew no one in the field at that time. Struggling for more than a year in the field, I was looking for someone I could get to know. It was then I found Ka-Sing’s interesting work. So I contacted him through a USTC college classmate of mine studying in Pittsburgh. I was excited when Ka-Sing replied with a warm message, inviting me to give a seminar talk and visit him for a week or so. This was the beginning of a long lasting friendship. During my visit, we even went together to Louisville for a workshop, during which I became friends with Weibin Zeng and Sze-Man Ngai.It was also the beginning of my collaborations with a long list of Ka-Sing’s students, postdocs and visitors that are still going on today. From that point on I became a frequent visitor of his, first in Pittsburgh then in Hong Kong. Each time, I would get to know some of the new members of his academic “family”, and would start one or two projects with them: From Tim Flaherty, to Sze-Man Ngai, to Hui Rao, Dejun Feng and Chun-Kit Lai. I have written some of my best papers with them. I cannot imagine where my career would be without Ka-Sing and these collaborators.After Ka-Sing moved to the Chinese University of Hong Kong I became an even more frequent visitor of his. The first time I visited Ka-Sing was also my first trip to Hong Kong. I fell in love with the city so much that I would come back to visit Ka-Sing every year for several years in a row. Through Ka-Sing I met some of my best friends and collaborators in Hong Kong, like Dejun Feng, Rao Hui, Chun-Kit Lai. Ka-Sing even encouraged me to consider moving to Hong Kong as he saw tremendous opportunities in the city. Ka-Sing’s encouragement had deeply shaped my own desire to move to this part of the world. Finally in 2014 I decided to take a position at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, moving my family to Hong Kong. This has been one of the best decisions I have made for my career, and I again have Ka-Sing to thank for.Looking back, words can not describe how lucky I am to have Ka-Sing as a friend. My career is so deeply linked to Ka-Sing --- from our first meeting that helped launch my academic career to my moving to Hong Kong via his encouragement --- it is hard to envision where my career would be without Ka-Sing’s friendship, support and mentoring. Yet Ka-Sing is far more than just a friend and a mentor. He was a fantastic mathematician whose original ideas had nurtured an army of younger mathematical minds, and his kindness and generosity had impacted the careers of equally many. Ka-Sing, the world has lost one of its brightest, kindest and most generous members in you. But your soul and your legacy will march on to impact the careers of many more. Please rest in peace.
It was a great loss to the CUHK community in general, and to the mathematical community in particualr for the departure of Professor KS Lau. I first met KS back in the early 90's when I moved to Carnegie Mellon. Because the HK community at CMU was tiny, we used to hang around with folks from the University of Pittsburgh for social and sport activities. I still vivdly remember those Saturday evenings when we played badminton, volley ball and basketball together at the UPitt gyms. But our connection did not terminate at Pittsburgh. In the early 90's, KS moved back to CUHK and subsequently I joined the Statistcs Department of CUHK in 2000.
As the Chairman of the Department, I learnt a lot from KS about the role and spirit on how to behave as a Chairman. Because our offices were just one floor apart, we always discussed late in the evenings about various matters. He shared many of insightful experiences and at times grievances about the difficulties being an administrator. A case in point was that when I started my chairmanship, I was deeply puzzled by the funding formula. After several rounds of in-depth discussions with him, KS finally convinced me that it did not really matter. There was no point in nailing down the numbers as the funding formula kept evolving. At the end, we both concluded that even with the joint effort of a mathematician and a statistician, both professionally trained for dealing with numbers, could not solve the mystery, at least not easily!
Besides the chairmanship ordeal, we hiked, jogged and sometimes having a drink together. I still remembered those late night evenings when I was so exhuasted and walked into his office to invite him for a dessert in Tai Po, which he usually agreed.
As we all know, KS was a low profile person. He was very casual about his outlook and we used to joke around that either he or me would won the trophy of driving the most run down car on campus. At the beginning I was the champion, but later he took over after my old car went kaput.
KS, we missed you dearly! May you rest in peace!!
Sincerely, Ngai Hang
PS I would like to share a comic from Calvin and Hobbes, both KS and I usually laughed!
I am extremely sorry to hear that Prof. Lau passed away. When I was a student at CUHK, I learnt a lot from the student seminars organized by Prof. Lau. In the beginning of my postdoc, Prof. Lau invited me to Pittsburgh, and brought me to a lot of beautiful and interesting places in the city. I enjoyed this visit a lot, and would like to thank Prof. Lau's hospitality here again. Prof. Lau will definitely be missed by many of us. May he rest in peace.
Professor Lau visited my University for three months in 1995. From then on, he has been my mentor in life and science. Whenever we meet, he would share with me some of his visions for mathematics and education. They influenced me a lot. Rest in peace, my great mentor. I shall miss your charming smile.
I was a student in the math department from 2008 to 2012. Now I still benifit from what I learnt there, everyday. The success of the department is never possible without Prof. Lau's hard effort. Prof. Lau also supported me for the undergraduate research program in Waterloo, back in 2011. Initially I was not selected for the program, but when I went to talk to Prof. Lau, he kindly gave me the opprttunity, which helped me a lot in understanding probability theory. I will always remember his kindness and smile.
write a comment »
I would like to share the text of my eulogy presented at Professor Lau's Funeral on October 19, 2021.
It is extremely difficult for us to accept the fact that Professor Lau has left us so quickly. Before coming to this Funeral, my friends in the WeChat group, “This family from Pittsburgh,” asked me to represent them in this Funeral. Hence, I bring with me all their deep condolences and fond memories for Professor Lau. Why is Professor Lau so respected, loved, and missed by his students? I think the major reason is that he has made a huge difference in the lives of almost all his students. Without his enthusiastic support and generous help, it would have been very difficult for us to study in the US, receive our PH.D.s, and launch our careers. He was a prolific mathematician, a demanding teacher and an inspiring mentor. He always went the extra mile to assist his students. We not only admired him as our Professor, but also as a close friend. He often invited us to his house to have wonderful parties. Here I would like to commend his wife Eveline for her warm hospitality. Professor Lau’s tireless work and mentorship of his students has helped us achieve tremendous success. Today, from Pennsylvania to California, from Wisconsin to Georgia, his students work actively in the field of Mathematics and positively impact thousands of students’ lives. I would be remiss not to mention Professor Lau’s incredible achievement in leading the Department of Mathematics of Chinese University of Hong Hong, where in addition to helping the Department turn around during a quite chaotic period, he has trained dozens of PH. D.’s and Post-Doctors, and has made significant contributions in the field of Fractal Geometry. I have recently learned that memorial activities are held at that University and several other Universities in China to honor his unwavering legacy.
Professor Lau will always be in our heart. May he rest in peace.write a comment »
Your friend Yang Wangwrite a comment »
It was a great loss to the CUHK community in general, and to the mathematical community in particualr for the departure of Professor KS Lau. I first met KS back in the early 90's when I moved to Carnegie Mellon. Because the HK community at CMU was tiny, we used to hang around with folks from the University of Pittsburgh for social and sport activities. I still vivdly remember those Saturday evenings when we played badminton, volley ball and basketball together at the UPitt gyms. But our connection did not terminate at Pittsburgh. In the early 90's, KS moved back to CUHK and subsequently I joined the Statistcs Department of CUHK in 2000.
As the Chairman of the Department, I learnt a lot from KS about the role and spirit on how to behave as a Chairman. Because our offices were just one floor apart, we always discussed late in the evenings about various matters. He shared many of insightful experiences and at times grievances about the difficulties being an administrator. A case in point was that when I started my chairmanship, I was deeply puzzled by the funding formula. After several rounds of in-depth discussions with him, KS finally convinced me that it did not really matter. There was no point in nailing down the numbers as the funding formula kept evolving. At the end, we both concluded that even with the joint effort of a mathematician and a statistician, both professionally trained for dealing with numbers, could not solve the mystery, at least not easily!
Besides the chairmanship ordeal, we hiked, jogged and sometimes having a drink together. I still remembered those late night evenings when I was so exhuasted and walked into his office to invite him for a dessert in Tai Po, which he usually agreed.
As we all know, KS was a low profile person. He was very casual about his outlook and we used to joke around that either he or me would won the trophy of driving the most run down car on campus. At the beginning I was the champion, but later he took over after my old car went kaput.
KS, we missed you dearly! May you rest in peace!!
Sincerely,
Ngai Hang
PS I would like to share a comic from Calvin and Hobbes, both KS and I usually laughed!
write a comment »
write a comment »
Professor Lau visited my University for three months in 1995. From then on, he has been my mentor in life and science. Whenever we meet, he would share with me some of his visions for mathematics and education. They influenced me a lot. Rest in peace, my great mentor. I shall miss your charming smile.
write a comment »
I was a student in the math department from 2008 to 2012. Now I still benifit from what I learnt there, everyday. The success of the department is never possible without Prof. Lau's hard effort. Prof. Lau also supported me for the undergraduate research program in Waterloo, back in 2011. Initially I was not selected for the program, but when I went to talk to Prof. Lau, he kindly gave me the opprttunity, which helped me a lot in understanding probability theory. I will always remember his kindness and smile.