Sesilia Monalisa Lātū, the First Secretary of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Tonga, has been awarded the Part-time Professor by the Liaocheng University in China early this month.

In receiving this award, Mrs Lātū has become a special researcher for the Pacific island countries at the university’s Research Center.

The President of the university was quoted in a statement from the Tongan Embassy in China as saying that Mrs Lātū’s award would help “to accelerate the development of the scientific construction of our university, especially the construction of the Pacific Island Countries’ Research Center”.

Lātū was graduated from the South Pacific University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts and a MA degree in education from the Auckland University in 2006.

She worked at Tonga High School, Tonga College, Tongan Education College, Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in New Zealand, and Tonga Extension Services of University of South Pacific as a senior lecturer.

She was also an academic Dean of the New Zealand’s Te Wananga O Aotearoa institute.

She married to Siamelie Lātū, Tonga’s current Ambassador to China.