BIOGRAPHY

Since Michelle received her PhD degree from the University of British Columbia, she never stops working on emotion and personality. In 2002, she joined the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where she served as the founding director of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program during 2009-2016, as the acting head of Division of Social Science during 2011-2013, and as the director of Undergraduate Recruitment and Admissions during 2016-2020.

At HKUST, Michelle teaches Psychology of Personal Growth, Personality Psychology, Leveraging Personality in the Workplace, Growing Up the Chinese Way, and Seminar on Emotion. The personal growth course provides ample opportunity to satisfy her “id” impulses of performing in front of 400 students. The other courses provide a platform on which to utilize her research to enrich students’ understanding of human behaviors in comparative perspective. In 2007, Michelle won the Humanities and Social Science Teaching Award; in 2010, she became the medalist for the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching; and in 2011, she was the finalist for the University Grants Committee Teaching Award. Michelle is currently taking part in two MOOC courses and they are Psychology of Personal Growth and My Favorite Lectures @ HKUST.

Michelle is happily married to Steven and they have two children. While Stephanie was a UBC baby who walked Michelle through long days of completing a multi-cultural study on the structure of emotion resulting in a 300-page dissertation, Christopher was a HKUST baby who challenged her to strike a balance between the “stress and tension” of the tenure pursuit and a family energized by a newborn. Both children are grown-ups now, as they claim, allowing Michelle to live out her childhood dreams.

FAVORITE QUOTES

c. like no other people.” (Michelle Yik)

“With the truth, one cannot live. To be able to live, one needs illusions.” (Otto Rank)

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” (Abraham Lincoln)

“Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.” (B. F. Skinner)

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” (Winston Churchill)

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.” (Robert Munsch)

CONTACT

Michelle YIK
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Division of Social Science
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon
HONG KONG

Email: Michelle.Yik@ust.hk