Three academics from the Faculty of Science have been selected for Research Grants Council’s Senior Research Fellow Scheme and Research Fellow Scheme

Three academics from the Faculty of Science have been selected for Research Grants Council’s Senior Research Fellow Scheme and Research Fellow Scheme in recognition of their research excellence, and awarded a total of over HK$18 million in funding to facilitate and advance their research. 

RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme 2022/23: 

Professor Alice Sze Tsai WONG, Director (Interim) of the School of Biological Sciences

Project title: Exploiting Glycosylation in Metastatic Cancer Cells as New Theranostics

This project explores the unsolved mystery of cell interaction in tumour metastasis. Particularly, it looks at the level of glycosylation – the attachment of carbohydrates to the backbone of a protein through an enzymatic reaction, required for successful cancer cell colonisation. Taking both in vitro and in vivo approaches and utilising multiple cutting-edge technologies, the research will bring great translational implications in actionable patient stratification and highly targeted immune-oncology theranostics.

Click here for Professor Alice Sze Tsai Wong’s biography.

RGC Research Fellow Scheme 2022/23:

Dr YASUHARA, Moriaki, Associate Professor of the School of Biological Sciences and the Swire Institute of Marine Science

Project title: Time Machine Biology and the Development of AI-based Automatic Identifications in Hong Kong: Paleobiology to Better Understand Biodiversity of Marine Ecosystems

Direct observations of marine ecosystems are inherently limited in their temporal scope.  To break through the barriers, this project will conduct “Time Machine Biology”, a synthetic palaeobiological research to understand the past ecosystem and biodiversity in Hong Kong. The research employs a deep-learning automation system that could expedite the identification process needed in the fields of paleoecology, historical ecology and paleoclimatology. The HKU research team is the first in Southeast Asia to develop this automated imaging and identification system.

Click here for Dr Moriaki Yasuhara’s biography.

Dr Shizhong ZHANG, Associate Head of Department of Physics

Project title: Quantum Gases with High Partial-Wave Scattering

The project aims to investigate a host of new phenomena in p-wave and high-partial wave Fermi and Bose gas, with an emphasis on the role of anisotropic and momentum-dependent scattering. It specifically looks into the possibility of novel ground states induced by p-wave interaction in a two-component Bose gas that is fundamentally different from the standard Bose-Einstein condensate – a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low densities is cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero.  Additionally, the research investigates the transport properties of the gases, such as shear and bulk viscosities.

Click here for Dr Shizhong Zhang’s biography.

Click here to learn more about the Senior Research Fellow Scheme Awardees

Click here to learn more about the Research Fellow Scheme Awardees:

Click here for more information about the RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) and RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS).