Concurrent with his role as Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Max Shen is appointed Chair Professor jointly in the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Business and Economics. He is also the Dean of Graduate School, Acting Director of Technology Transfer Office and Knowledge Exchange Office, and the Founding Director of HKU Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science.

Professor Shen obtained his PhD from Northwestern University in 2000. That same year, he began his academic career as Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, and joined the University of California, Berkeley in 2004, where he rose through the ranks to become Chancellor's Professor and Chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He was also a Center Director at the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute and Honorary Professor at Tsinghua University. Professor Shen joined HKU in 2021.

With research interests in the areas of logistics and supply chain management, data-driven decision making, and system optimization, Professor Shen's research programs cut through businesses, energy systems, transportation systems, smart cities, healthcare management, and environmental protection. He has worked closely with industries and has a strong track record of securing major research grants from government agencies and private sector. PhD students and Postdoctoral scholars he graduated now hold positions in leading universities in North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as at major technological companies globally.

Internationally recognized as a top scholar in his field, Professor Shen is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), a Fellow and past President of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a past President of the Society of Locational Analysis of INFORMS.