Director

Professor Julian Tanner

Professor Julian Tanner has served as the Director of the Common Core since January 2023. He previously held the role of AoI Convenor for Science, Technology, and Big Data, and has been actively involved in teaching and developing a wide range of Common Core courses since the program’s inception. His work as Director focuses on fostering transdisciplinary undergraduate research, expanding student opportunities, and promoting flexible learning modalities to support student-led inquiry. Professor Tanner is committed to building collaborations in teaching and learning across all ten faculties of HKU.
Recognized for his excellence in teaching, Professor Tanner received the HKU Outstanding Teacher Award in 2015, and has been a team member for HKU’s 2018 and UGC’s 2019 Outstanding Team Teaching Awards, as well as the HKU Teaching Innovation Award (Team) in 2023.
Professor Tanner is also Associate Dean (Health Sciences Education) for the LKS Faculty of Medicine, and is the Dexter H C Man Family Professor in Medical Science. His research team at HKUMed specializes in nucleic acid engineering and chemical biology. He has published over 100 research papers in leading journals and filed over 10 patents in these areas, and has supervised over 40 research postgraduate students. His team is engaged in major collaborative projects, including the Theme-Based Research Scheme (HKU Co-PI of TBRS 2020 “Aptamer: Molecular Insight and Translational Theranostics”) and the InnoHK Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre (ABIC) at the Hong Kong Science Park, where he is a Co-PI. He is a Fellow of the Materials Innovation Institute for Life Sciences and Energy (MILES) HKU institute in Shenzhen, and a co-founder and scientific advisor of the diagnostics startup company Lifespectrum Technology Ltd. His latest textbook “Essentials of Chemical Biology: Structure and Dynamics of Biological Macromolecules,” was published by Wiley as a Second Edition in 2024.

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Associate Director

Dr Jack Tsao

Dr Jack Tsao serves as the Associate Director and Senior Lecturer at the Common Core. He is active in promoting inter- and trans-disciplinary education in the curriculum and co-curriculum. Through social impact projects, experiential learning, research, and other project-based initiatives, he explores and experiments with innovative approaches to prepare students for the future of work and citizenship. As a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Advance, he is passionate about promoting teaching excellence through the professional growth of teachers and tutors. He is a recipient of the HKU Outstanding Teaching Awards (Team) in 2022 as part of the Communication-intensive Courses Initiative. With a PhD in Education, Jack’s research is focused on education futures, exploring comparative and international education, transdisciplinarity, youth aspirations, the sociology of education, and digital technologies and artificial intelligence. In addition to his academic career, Jack has held various leadership roles in corporate learning and development and commercial banking. He previously co-founded and led a Hong Kong distribution startup as a CEO, growing the business to a HK$300 million enterprise prior to his exit. As a consultant at the global consulting firm RogenSI (part of TTEC), he trained and coached executives and professionals from multinational corporations spanning diverse sectors, including banking, finance, education, healthcare, construction, FMCG, and government organisations.

Assistant Lecturer

McQueen Sum

McQueen Sum is currently an Assistant Lecturer with the Common Core. She has taught five different Common Core courses across diverse Areas of Inquiry. Her teaching philosophy centers on harnessing meaningful and innovative pedagogies to enrich students’ learning experiences. She is especially driven by the conviction that education, technology, and goodwill can meaningfully shape a better world.
Beyond her university teaching, McQueen is the founder of Project Agora, an education center that pioneers curriculum design for project based and interdisciplinary learning for P–12 students. She finds immense joy in her work—despite its long hours and demanding nature—believing that her effort is repaid in the growth of her students.
She is a Doctor of Philosophy and Clarendon Scholar in Education at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include higher education, academic work, and sociomaterial theories of practice. She has also contributed to multiple projects as a Research Associate at the Centre for Global Higher Education.
McQueen previously earned a master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, specializing in media and learning technologies. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Hong Kong, graduating with a degree in International Business and Global Management (and a second major in Philosophy), supported by a full merit based scholarship. It was during her undergraduate career—through work with Khan Academy, HarvardX (edX), and tutoring—that she first discovered her passion for education.
McQueen will serve as President of the Rotary Club of Neoteric Hong Kong (2026–2027), a club dedicated to youth centered service.