The University of Macau (UM) held the Welcome Reception and Orientation for New Academic Staff 2025/2026 to welcome a new batch of outstanding scholars. With its growing international reputation and influence, UM has recruited 76 outstanding scholars from around the world for the new academic year.

The new academic staff include promising young scholars as well as internationally renowned academics. They come from diverse cultural backgrounds, some of whom were born and raised in Macao, while others come from other parts of the world. They are dedicated to cutting-edge research in various fields, including the Internet of Things, generative artificial intelligence, computational geomechanics, pharmacoeconomics, functional genomics, behavioural finance, as well as the humanities and social sciences. Leading figures among them include Zhang Dongbo, professor and associate dean of the Faculty of Education (FED); Wu Yonghong, professor and head of the Department of Government and Public Administration in the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS); and Christian Montag, Distinguished Professor and associate director of the Institute of Collaborative Innovation (ICI).

The new academic staff come from various world-renowned universities, including Stanford University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, the National University of Singapore, University College London, Carnegie Mellon University, the Technical University of Munich, The University of Tokyo, The University of Hong Kong, Fudan University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Heidelberg University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Amsterdam. Their diverse and international perspectives and experiences will enhance the teaching quality at UM and enrich the university’s research output.

At the event, Rector Yonghua Song highlighted UM’s commitment to its development focus of ‘being rooted in Macao, taking part in the development of the Greater Bay Area, integrating into the nation, and going global’, adding that the university will continue to provide high-quality education and advance key research initiatives with international influence. He also wished the new academic staff a fruitful academic career and happiness at UM.

The event also included a sharing session, where vice rectors of UM and other representatives helped the new academic staff gain a better understanding of UM’s latest developments in academic affairs, global affairs, student affairs, research, and administration.

Going forward, UM will continue to cultivate and recruit high-calibre talent, and create a favourable working environment for its academic staff to enable them to reach their full potential and overcome challenges in their academic careers, thereby building teaching and research teams with international influence.