Two HKU scientists receive Croucher Innovation and Senior Research Fellowship Awards
Congratulations to Dr Yufeng Wang and Professor Wang Yao for their being awarded Croucher Innovation Award 2019 and Croucher Senior Research Fellowships 2020 respectively. Croucher Innovation Award 2019 Dr Yufeng Wang Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry Dr Wang’s main area of research is colloidal assembly, the aim of which is to put together colloidal nanoparticles — the essential ingredient in food, paints, cosmetics and even electronics — to form 1D to 3D superstructures for emerging applications such as photonics, printing, nano-delivery and micro-machinery, etc. Currently, one of the team’s key strategies is to chemically synthesize anisotropic particles with low-symmetry shapes, which introduces specific and directional interactions between particles and yields complex yet well-defined structures via assembly. The reduced symmetry also encodes necessary information that programs the particle’s dynamics, making them significantly more useful toward active materials, that is, smart materials that move, adapt, reconfigure and evolve emulating those in the biological and living systems. Croucher Senior Research Fellowships 2020 Professor Wang Yao Chair Professor, Department of Physics Professor Yao’s research interest lies in the physics of spin and valley in solids, with a current focus on two-dimensional materials and their heterostructures. He has played a decisive role in creating an important new research direction – valley optoelectronics in 2D materials, which aims to exploit valley, a quantum degree of freedom of electron, in future optoelectronic devices. With the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship he will explore new functional mechanisms for versatile electronics and optoelectronics based on van der Waals layered structure, combing its unique aspects including the rich physics associated with electron’s valley pseudospin and the ubiquitous moiré pattern that naturally provides a nanoscale landscape for manipulations of electrons and optical excitations. About the awards Croucher Innovation Awards First presented in 2012, the Croucher Innovation Awards aim to identify a small number of exceptionally talented scientists working at an internationally competitive level and to offer substantial support to these 3 “rising stars” at a formative stage in their careers. The Awards are designed to enable recipients to pursue their own scientific, intellectual and professional inclinations, to advance their expertise, to engage in bold new work, and to contribute to the development of education and research in Hong Kong. Each award carries a value of up to HK$5 million over 5 years for research expenses of the award winner. Croucher Senior Research Fellowships The Croucher Senior Research Fellowships scheme was first introduced in 1997. The Fellowships are awarded to local academics who have excelled in scientific research work. The awards are judged by a group of leading international scientists invited to provide confidential reviews of candidates nominated in a competitive exercise. The value of each award includes a HK$2 million research grant to the award winner. Separate funds are awarded to the universities of the fellowship recipients, enabling the university to recruit replacement teacher to take over the award winner’s duties for a twelve-month period. These currently stand at a maximum of HK$1,042,140 for the Senior Research Fellowships. The arrangement enables the awardees to devote more time and effort to research work.
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Enhancing visibility of HKU Science at an international arena
To enhance visibility of HKU Science, the Faculty participated in the 2019 American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting as an exhibitor in San Francisco from Dec 9 to 13. Dr Joseph Michaski, Assistant Dean (Knowledge Exchange) of the Faculty, Dr Kono Lemke and Dr Baker from the Department of Earth Sciences and School of Biological Sciences respectively, led some postgraduate students there showcasing our strengths and opportunities to visitors all over the world. Through the team’s efforts, the visitors did not only learn the future ambitions of HKU, but also the expertise and research accomplishments of our professoriate staff, our international collaboration projects as well as opportunities for post-doctoral fellowship, postgraduate and undergraduate studies. The exhibition also allowed us to reconnect with our alumni who excel in their own professions overseas, and senior academicians who are interested in visiting us or building partnerships, as well as to reach out to prospective international students who aspire to pursue science in their study and career. Having attracted 28,000 visitors at the meeting, our visibility on the world map is further improved. We will seize more opportunities to showcase our strengths at different international exhibitions and conferences in the future.
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