Kou Voravong
Kou Voravong grew up in Savannakhet and pursued a primary education there. He obtained the « certificat d'études primaires complémentaire indochinois » - Certificate of Indochinese Additional Primary Studies - (CEPCI) in 1930, went afterward to Vientiane and began his first-secondary-school year at the Collège Auguste Pavie. But because of a conflict which opposed him to French Colonial administration, his adopted father was sentenced to prison that same year. As reaction to this situation, Kou Voravong left school and returned to Savannakhet. As an out-of-school teenager, he practiced sports, especially soccer.
K. T. Chau
Chau was born in Hong Kong in 1960. He received his senior diploma in 1983 and the honours diploma with distinction in 1984 from what was then Hong Kong Baptist College, now known as Hong Kong Baptist University. After working one year as a full time demonstrator/technician/tutor at the Hong Kong Baptist College, he went to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand in 1985, studying structural engineering. He received his MEng (Master of Engineering) degree in 1987 and was awarded the Tim Kendall Memorial Prize nNumber one in the graduating class of 1987), with straight As and an excellent thesis under the supervision of Professor Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai (now the President of AIT). After working for a few months as a research associate at AIT under Worsak, he went to Northwestern University in 1987 under the supervision of Professor John Rudnicki. He received a PhD in theoretical and applied mechanics in 1991. After another year as post-doctoral at Northwestern University, he joined what was then Hong Kong Polytechnic (now the Hong Kong Polytechnic University) in 1992. He has been serving there as a lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, professor and chair professor.