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AWARD RECIPIENTS

Home / Award Reipients / Scholarly Work / Professor Stephen Richard Palmquist
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PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN SCHOLARLY WORK 

Prof. Stephen Richard Palmquist

Department of Religion and Philosophy
Faculty of Arts

Currently in his 33rd year at the University, Professor Stephen Richard Palmquist has earned a world-renowned reputation for his scholarly work, with over 200 publications to his name including more than 110 refereed articles and book chapters.

In the past five years, Professor Palmquist’s research record has been particularly exceptional, with 56 scholarly works either published or contracted, featuring an edited anthology and two monographs, 39 refereed journal articles and book chapters, and 14 other publications. Altogether his research has attracted 1,740 known citations; 57 of his publications have been cited at least five times each. His high-impact work has an H-index of 22, a G-index of 37, and has been widely translated. For example, his three published textbooks, sometimes known as the “Philopsychy” (soul-loving) trilogy, have sold more than 20,000 copies in four different languages.

Professor Palmquist’s main scholarly expertise focuses on the philosophy of the great Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant. He has won global prestige in the past two decades for his “affirmative interpretation” of Kant’s theory of religion. Kant scholars often focus on only one or two aspects of Kant’s wide-ranging thought, but Professor Palmquist’s publications address themes that range throughout the whole spectrum of Kant-scholarship.

Currently Professor Palmquist is extending his influence still further by completing a book that demonstrates how Kant’s philosophy served in many ways as a precursor to the post-Kant revolutions in physics, mathematics and other sciences.

Professor Palmquist has started numerous knowledge transfer initiatives including “Kant on the Web”, an award-winning website constructed in 1995 to disseminate a wide range of internet resources on Kant research. To this day it is widely regarded as one of the best collections of Kant research, and other Kant-related information, on the internet.

Professor Palmquist also founded the Hong Kong Philosophy Café, a community organisation that has been sponsoring open discussions of philosophical topics for over 20 years, and in 2015, the Hong Kong Kant Society that co-organises local conferences and workshops, as well as panels at annual meetings of the American Philosophical Association.

Professor Palmquist’s research has been supported by 34 grants, including four from the Research Grants Council, totalling well over HK$2,100,000 in research funding.

Much sought-after as a speaker, Professor Palmquist has been invited to numerous conferences as keynote or guest speaker, including lectures at international conferences in Oslo (2019), Seoul (2018), Beijing (2017) and Hong Kong (2016). Professor Palmquist also serves on the editorial boards of numerous professional bodies and is Associate Editor of the tier-one publication Journal of Chinese Philosophy. Recently he held concurrent appointments at Sogang University (Seoul, in 2018) and at Western Sydney University (2016 to 2019); his appointments prior to 2014 include the University of Berkeley, Oklahoma State University and Stanford University.

Given the spectacular range and depth of Professor Palmquist’s scholarly endeavours, which have had such huge influence within and beyond the University boundaries, the Selection Committee is unreserved in recommending him for the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work.