Prof Yonghua Song is a scientist by training and an electrical engineer by profession. Yet he feels called to a different and higher mission: to turn out identifiable talent for the country and a better world. This higher purpose now defines his life. To his scientific mind, his pre-UM personal story is divided into three stages: schooling, going abroad, and returning home. On 9 January 2018, the day he took over as UM’s new rector, the fourth stage of his life began. Henceforth he will call upon his past experience and every fiber of his being to lead this university to its destiny. To him, the rectorship is not simply a job; it is a mission which he was born to fulfill. His actions and words demonstrate that he is ready for the challenge. 電氣工程學家宋永華教授不僅是一位傑出的科學家，更是一位胸懷“得天下英才而教育之”夢想的教育家。2018年1月9日， 宋永華教授帶著他的教育夢想來到澳門，出任澳門大學新校長一職。他把自己從出生到2017年的人生分成三個重要的階段：求 學、出國、回國。由接任澳大校長的一刻起，他的人生又進入新的階段。“我希望把以往在高校積累的管理和教學的經驗貢獻 澳大，幫助澳大實現教育的願景。” 大山裡來的孩子 1964年1月，宋永華校長出生於四川巴中一個窮 鄉，他的父母抱著“窮莫丟書”，堅持咬實牙關供 他完成大學學位。他的母親曾回憶說：“永華6歲 入學，在和平鄉那個地方，6歲小孩上學是一件稀 罕事。永華讀書著迷是出了名的，他一門心思就在 學習上，從來不浪費時間。” 宋校長以往接受傳媒訪問時，經常強調說大山讓他 學會自強不息，大山讓他懂得知難而進，大山人 的性格讓他一步步走向成功。他從小刻苦學習，在 16歲那年考上成都科技大學，1989年在中國電力 科學研究院獲博士學位，成為他家鄉的第一位博 士。1991年在清華大學完成博士後便到英國留學 訪問。他說出國純屬偶然，“在1989年，我在北 京的一次國際學術會議上發表的文章引起了一些人 的興趣，之後就有幾所英國大學邀請我去講學。” 這次偶然帶來的機會，把他引向人生的第二階段。 融入陌生環境 在英國的10多年，是宋校長人生大放異彩的第二 階段，也贏得了英國學術界和工業界的認可。他在 1991年赴英國從事教學和科研工作，抵英後，先 在布里斯托大學做英國皇家學會的訪問學者，隨後 在幾所大學做科研和教學工作，後來再從事行政管 理工作。這與一般的留學生出國求學，完成學業後 再工作的過程不同。他曾撰文描述這段艱苦的經 歷，“剛到英國面對陌生的環境和人，一切都要重 新開始，因此必須要端正心態。我剛去英國時，只 能做一些學術交流，講述在國內做的研究，後來才 進入自己感興趣的學校，從事教學和研究。” A Boy from the Village Born in January 1964 in a dirt-poor village in Bazhong city, Sichuan province, Rector Song, along with his family, saw learning as the only ticket out of their inter-generational poverty. His parents, by the sweat of their brow, did the impossible--they put him through college. His mother proudly remembers the day when he started school at the age of six, then unheard of in their village. Soon, he became a famous bookworm. He devoured books. He digested what he read. He had no time for anything else. Later in life, in media interviews, he would tell the world that the hardships of the hills taught him never to stop trying to better his life, that no difficulties are insurmountable, and that success comes one small step at a time. By age 16, his hard work had paid off; Song made it past the gates of Chengdu University of Science and Technology. By 1989, he earned his PhD from the China Electric Power Research Institute, becoming the first person in his village to hold a doctoral degree. Two years later, another PhD degree followed, this time from the nation’s top-ranked Tsinghua University. Song was flying high. Then something happened that was entirely serendipitous. In 1989, he presented an article at an international academic conference in Beijing. It ignited the interest of certain scholars in attendance. Two years later, they invited him to the United Kingdom to deliver a series of lectures. That accidental opportunity proved a turning point in life. Thus began the second stage of his life. Getting Acclimatised to a New Environment Song was to spend more than a decade in the UK. Those ten years saw the full flowering of his professional career; he came to the attention of academia and industry alike. His career, however, did not take the conventional route favoured by Chinese students who studied overseas and who usually sought gainful employment upon graduation. In Song’s case, he began as a visiting scholar of the Royal Society at the University of Bristol. From that tentative position, he managed to secure concurrent appointments in teaching and research at several universities. He soon graduated to administrative and managerial roles. But it was not all roses and sunshine, as he recalled in a later article describing those bittersweet umagazine issue 19 17
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