The 2021 HLMA Winning Papers will be published soon*. In this issue of Connections, we invited Prof. Frederick Tsz-Ho Fong of HKUST, the editor of the Papers, to get a behind-the-scenes look at the editing process, and to share his thoughts on the development of mathematics education in Hong Kong. Prof. Fong first joined the HLMA assessment process in 2018 as a referee, and became the Chair of the Screening Panel as well as a member of the Scientific Committee in 2021. He is now the liaison person who is familiar with the Awards and the coordination across referees and committees.

From editing to publishing the winning papers takes months to prepare and this makes a meaningful contribution to the secondary school mathematics education in Hong Kong. Prof. Fong pointed out that the publication of the winning papers not only ensures the transparency of the competition, but also allows the broader community to appreciate the research level achieved by our winners. At the same time, the winning papers can be used as a reference to encourage and guide secondary school teachers and students who are interested in joining the competition. In that sense, they can benefit from the opportunity to explore the fields of mathematics beyond the school  curriculum, as well as the trend in mathematics research and the interests among contemporary mathematicians. Prof. Fong gave high praises on the academic level of the papers, acknowledging that the sophistication of some of the papers are comparable to postgraduate level. The discovery of such immense potential among the participants reflects the importance of entrusting the review and assessment of the submitted papers to scholars with specific mathematical expertise.