Professor Naubahar Sharif holds a BBA and MPhil from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and an MA and PhD (2005) from Cornell University. In 2011, he completed the Executive Education programme in Innovation for Economic Development at Harvard University. From 2021 to 2025, he was Head of the Division of Public Policy at HKUST, where he also held a joint appointment with the Division of Integrative Systems and Design.

Professor Sharif’s research has focused on the history and development of Hong Kong’s innovation system, as well as science, technology and innovation policy in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. More recently, his research has expanded to include the Belt and Road initiative and mental health and wellbeing in Hong Kong.

He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His work has appeared in leading Q1-ranked journals such as Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, The China Journal, and Science, Technology and Human Values. From 2006 to 2010, he served as a consultant for the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission. Professor Sharif’s research was one of HKUST’s few ‘impact case study’ submissions (sole-authored) for its 2020 and 2025 Research Assessment Exercises.

Professor Sharif has been awarded multiple research grants, including Public Policy Research and General Research Fund grants from Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council (RGC). He has served as co-principal-investigator for a RGC cross-institutional Collaborative Research Fund, and two Strategic Public Policy Research grants awarded by Hong Kong’s Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office. Between 2021 and 2023, he was awarded HK$27 million of funding as the principal investigator for various mental health-related research and community projects, including a HK$14 million grant from the prestigious Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust under the Chief Executive’s Community List.

At HKUST, Professor Sharif’s undergraduate course received an honorary mention in the 2022 Common Core Excellence Award competition, ranking among the top two courses evaluated. He has also received multiple teaching awards, including the Interdisciplinary Programs Office’s (now the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies) Teaching Excellence Award in 2020 and the School of Humanities and Social Science Best Teacher Award twice (2009 and 2016).

Professor Sharif is actively involved in public service in Hong Kong. In May 2024, he was appointed to the Research Strategy Expert Group under the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit of the HKSAR, a highly influential committee of experts tasked with shaping long-term strategic policies for the territory, underscoring his standing as a leading policy expert. He also serves on the HKSAR Government Advisory Committee on Mental Health (2017-2025) and the Mental Health Review Tribunal (2019-2025). Additionally, he is a Senior Advisor to The Joseph Needham Foundation for Science & Civilisation (Hong Kong), and an honorary Distinguished Research Fellow at a private independent school in Hong Kong.

He regularly contributes opinion pieces to local newspapers, including the China Daily (Hong Kong Edition) and the South China Morning Post, and has been featured in local print media as well as local television.