PhD student from APS awarded prestigious Ernst Mach Grant – Worldwide

Herbary Zhang, a final-year student in his doctorate studies at the Department of Asian and Policy Studies (APS) under the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme sponsored by the Research Grants Council, was awarded the prestigious Ernst Mach Grant – Worldwide by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Herbary will start his research on gender and migration this fall at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

Under the supervision of Dr Isabella Ng Fung-sheung, Assistant Professor and Associate Head (Teaching and Learning) of APS, Herbary studied the intersectional stigma and social exclusion faced by single mothers in Thailand. Because of the substantial impact his research made in Thailand, Herbary was awarded two research fellowships to support his fieldwork in Thailand by Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University, which rank first and second respectively among universities in the country.

The Ernst Mach Grant - Worldwide is a remarkably competitive research grant for young researchers from around the world. In Hong Kong, only a few students from The University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong have been awarded the Ernst Mach Eurasia-Pacific Uninet Grant before.

Herbary thanked Dr Ng for her academic advice and supervision, and the department for providing administrative support for his studies. APS is committed to nurturing its students to become life-long learners and equipping them with the necessary technical, analytical and critical skills to meet Asia’s changing policy and developmental needs. Herbary’s achievement once again proves the exceptional calibre of the department’s research students and academic staff.