Welcoming Our New Academics

Professor Yang WANG
HKU Vice-President and Pro-
Vice-Chancellor (Institutional
Advancement)
Chair in Mathematics, Computing
and Data Science

• Passed China’s National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) at age 15 and entered the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC); later moved to the United States to complete a PhD in Mathematics at Harvard University.
• Former Full Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and later Department Chair at Michigan State University. Joined HKUST in 2014, serving as Head of the Department of Mathematics, Dean of Science, and Vice-President for Institutional Advancement. Also served as Program Director for Mathematical Sciences at the US National Science Foundation.
• While his roots are in mathematics, his current intellectual passion is driven by the rapid evolution of digital technology. He is deeply focused on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, particularly regarding how they can shape the future of science and education. Furthermore, he is actively researching the Web3 ecosystem, with a specific interest in blockchain technology, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and the tokenisation of Real-World Assets (RWA).

“Build like Noah, lead like Moses, fight like David, love like Jesus.”

Professor Shifeng CHENG
Professor
School of Biological Sciences

• PhD in Computational Biology, The University of Hong Kong.
• Previously Professor and Director of Plant Science Center at the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen (CAAS) (2018–2025); visiting scientist at Cornel University (2018) and John Innes Center (2023).
• Served at BGI Research as Team Leader of Bioinformatics and Plant Evolutionary Genomics (2011–2013) and later as Executive Director of the Plant & Agriculture Institute (2017–2018).
• Research focuses on a mechanistic understanding of the genomic and genetic foundations of evolutionary novelties and phenotypic diversity in plant traits.

Dr Helen CHEUNG
Assistant Lecturer
School of Biological Sciences

• A Registered Dietitian Nutritionist trained in the United States and Hong Kong, shaping a global perspective on clinical nutrition and education. She completed a PhD in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at CUHK, where she focused on perioperative medicine and clinical nutrition.
• Before joining HKU, she was a Research Fellow in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at CUHK under the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. She also served as an Honorary Dietitian at Prince of Wales Hospital.
• Research focuses on perioperative medicine and surgical nutrition, particularly how nutritional prehabilitation can improve recovery and address malnutrition in surgical patients.

“Finding patterns, sharing ideas, endless possibilities.”

Dr Vindya BHAT
Assistant Lecturer
Department of Mathematics

• PhD in Mathematics from Emory University, USA.
• Left a 10-year career in actuarial consulting to join NYU Courant, pursuing a lifelong passion for teaching and mentoring. Brings over a decade of higher education experience, with a focus on industry collaboration and student-centred learning.
• Specialises in graph theory and extremal combinatorics, with a focus on Ramsey theory.

Professor Meng GUO
Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Planetary
Sciences

• Trained as a planetary scientist at Yale University, where she earned her PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences.
• Served as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Nanyang Technological University and a T. C. Chamberlin & Origins Fellow at the University of Chicago. Earlier in her career, she worked as an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Crustal Dynamics, China Earthquake Administration.
• Uses planetary models to study the origins of life and search for its cosmic counterparts. By linking planetary evolution with physical, geochemical, and geobiological evidence, her work reconstructs Earth’s deep past and explores how habitable worlds emerge, addressing two enduring questions: Where did we come from, and are we alone?

“The path to discovery often starts with careful observation of nature.”

Professor Matthieu LERAY
Associate Professor
School of Biological Sciences

• PhD in Community Ecology from Pierre and Marie Curie University (now Sciences Sorbonne University).
• Prior to joining HKU, he spent more than a decade in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, first as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a staff scientist. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.
• Research focuses on understanding the resilience of coastal ecosystems to global change.

Professor Jiacheng LIU
Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Planetary
Sciences

• PhD in Planetary Geology from HKU; previously served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor at HKU.
• Research interests include the geology, habitability, and astrobiology of Mars, using spectroscopy, mineralogy, and chemical weathering to study planetary surfaces.

“Freedom and curiosity lead the way to discovery.”

Professor Wei QIAN
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics

• PhD in Mathematics from ETH Zurich; previously Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, and Research Scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris-Saclay University.
• Together with P. Nolin, X. Sun and Z. Zhuang, she computed the exact value of the backbone exponent in Bernoulli percolation at criticality.
• Research interests include random geometry, statistical mechanics, Schramm–Loewner evolution, and Brownian loop soups.

“I am fascinated by literature and cinema. They offer a different order of complexity than mathematics.”

Professor Zhong WAN
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics

• PhD in Physics from Purdue University; previously a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of California, Los Angeles.
• Research explores quantum materials under extreme conditions, uncovering new ways to manipulate superconductivity, symmetry, and electron interactions at the atomic scale.
• Current work aims to engineer layered quantum systems with programmable properties, revealing exotic phenomena such as chirality, spin–orbit coupling, and topological phases through low temperature experiments.

“Exploring the ocean from space to better understand and protect our blue planet.”

Professor Mengqiu WANG
Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Planetary
Sciences

• She obtained her PhD in Marine Sciences from the University of South Florida. Before joining HKU, she was a full professor at Wuhan University.
• Her research uses satellite observations, physical models, and AI to study the surface ocean under environmental change and human influence, focusing on processes such as macroalgae blooms, red tides, eddies, and waves along land–ocean boundaries, and improving the monitoring and prediction of marine environmental change.
• A Science (2019) study she led revealed the unprecedented expansion of floating macroalgae across the tropical Atlantic. Her work also applies petabyte-scale satellite data and deep learning to study bloom dynamics and their links to climate change and human activities.

Professor Mo Dick WONG
Assistant Professor
Department of Mathematics

• Born and raised in Hong Kong, he studied Actuarial Science as an undergraduate at HKU, where he discovered his passion for mathematical research through the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Programme. After graduation, he pursued further studies at the University of Cambridge and obtained a PhD in Pure Mathematics.
• Before returning to HKU, he was an Assistant Professor at Durham University and previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Oxford.
• Research focuses on probability theory and its applications, particularly random multifractal structures arising from problems in mathematical physics and analytic number theory.

“Exploring the quantum world through precision experiments with ultracold atoms, molecules and ions.”

Professor Zhendong ZHANG
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics

• PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Professor Cheng Chin. His thesis, “Coherent Dynamics and Reactions in Atomic and Molecular Bose–Einstein Condensates,” received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the International Organization of Chinese  Physicists and Astronomers (OCPA).
• He later joined Stanford University as a Bloch Postdoctoral Fellow, working with Professor Benjamin Lev on experiments involving magnetic quantum gases strongly coupled to a high-finesse multimode optical cavity.
• Research focuses on ultracold quantum gases and ions, including developing alloptical methods to trap ultracold ions in multimode optical cavities and studying their interactions with quantum-degenerate gases to explore quantum many-body physics and ultracold chemical reactions.