HKU Innovator Award 2023

Professor Hongzhe SUN, the Norman & Cecilia Yip Professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry and Chair Professor of Chemistry, has been honoured with the HKU Innovator Award. This accolade recognises Professor Sun’s outstanding innovations, showcasing promising potential for high impact in the field of bioinorganic chemistry.

 

The HKU Innovator Award has been established to recognise outstanding Faculty members whose innovations demonstrate exceptionally high potential impact (legacy or projected legacy) with transformative results to foster development. 

 

Professor Sun’s pioneering research focuses on the medicinal chemistry of bismuth applied to the treatment of COVID-19, demonstrating his commitment to addressing pressing global health challenges. His work includes identifying target sites in SARS-CoV-2 enzymes through metallomics methods, contributing to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind drug development.

 

The award reflects Professor Sun’s steadfast commitment to pioneering research with the potential to enhance human health significantly. His contributions advance drug development understanding and form the basis for novel treatments and therapies.

 

As a leading expert in the field of biological inorganic chemistry and metallomics, Professor Sun’s research interests lie in the frontier of metalloproteomics and metallomics, discovery of antimicrobial and antiviral agents, and inorganic chemical biology.  

 

Professor Sun has received many accolades over the years. He received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Dalton Horizon Prize (2023). He was selected as the RGC Senior Research Fellow (2021). His other accolades include Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry’ Outstanding Achievement Award’ (2022), Chinese Association for Instrumental Analysis Award (Grand Prize) (2021), the UC Berkeley Muetterties Lectureship (2018), WuXi AppTech Life Science & Chemistry Research Award (2016), the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship (2010-11) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Outstanding Young Scholar Award (2005).

 

Professor Sun joined the Department of Chemistry at HKU as an Assistant Professor in 1998 and was promoted to Professor in 2007. He was appointed to his endowed professorship in 2019.

 

Link to Professor Sun’s lab: https://www.bioinorg-chem.hku.hk