Outstanding Young Researcher Award 2025

 

Professor Jiang received his Bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2010 and his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2014. Following postdoctoral training at Oxford, he held faculty and research positions at the University of Western Australia and was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He joined HKU in 2021 and was awarded the prestigious Global STEM Professorship. He is currently the Director of the JC STEM Lab of Molecular Imaging.

 

Professor Jiang is internationally recognised for pioneering innovative bioimaging methodologies to visualise molecular trafficking and its impact on human health. By developing cutting-edge chemical imaging techniques, his team has visualised, for the first time, fundamental processes such as how fatty acids cross capillaries and how therapeutics interact within biological systems. His work has been published in world-leading journals, including Science, Cell Metabolism, and Nature Communications. Beyond the laboratory, he has achieved significant real-world impact through collaborations with major international companies; notably, his work with industry partners supported the launch of products now sold in over 170 countries.

 

The cornerstone of Professor Jiang’s research philosophy is the conviction that transformative breakthroughs happen by ‘making the connections’ – bridging the gaps between disparate disciplines and between academia and industry. He believes that by fostering deep collaborations across chemistry, biology, and medicine, researchers can solve high-impact problems that were previously thought impossible to address. He sees scientific excellence not only in high-impact publications but also in the successful translation of laboratory innovations into solutions that improve global health and industry standards.