Professor Cheng Kin fai’s affiliation with the University of Hong Kong is lifelong, stretching back over the past almost 60 years. He graduated as B.Sc. (General) and B.Sc. (Special) in 1960s. Between 1965 and 1970, he was at the University of British Columbia and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a Commonwealth Scholar and Research Fellow respectively, while he completed his PhD.Professor Cheng joined HKU in 1970.  He rose to professorial rank and he was elected as Dean of the Science Faculty in 1994.  During his Deanship, the Faculty underwent major developments.After retirement he became the first substantive HKU SPACE Community College Principal in 2002 and led the College to become a leading sub-degree provider. In 2011, he took on a further role as Vice-President (Academic) of Centennial College until 2016.He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and has served as HK Representative on the Regional Network of Natural Products Chemistry for UNESCO in S.E. Asia, Special Advisor to WHO on Human Reproductive Fertility and Chairman of the HKAL Chemistry Subject for HKEA.