Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Award 2013

Dr Chun Shing Jason PUN
Department of Physics
Project: Dimming the “Bright Pearl” – Informing the Public on Light Pollution

Dr Pun was concerned about public indifference to light pollution as a form of environmental degradation. His studies on the brightness of Hong Kong’s night skies were the first of their kind in Hong Kong. He set up the ‘Hong Kong Night Sky Monitoring Network’ in 2010, with automatic night sky measuring stations to provide long-term readings at 18 urban and rural locations. A website has also been set up to continue providing the public with real-time readings from the measuring stations. His team found the urban skies to be 33 times brighter than rural skies on average, confirming that Hong Kong had one of the brightest night-time skies in the world. With extensive outreach efforts especially to schools and through the media, the project has successfully raised public awareness in the problem of light pollution. Dr Pun also met with professional bodies and government officials to discuss the findings and possible mitigation measures, with a view to informing potential future legislation.