Croucher Foundation Presents Innovation Awards to Four Distinguished Scholars | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Croucher Foundation held the Foundation Day Dinner and Awards Presentation Ceremony last Friday (December 8) to present the Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Awards 2023 to four distinguished scholars from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the University of Hong Kong (HKU), for their outstanding scientific research achievements. Prof. SUN Dong, the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was the Guest of Honor at the ceremony.

The list of awardees is as follows:

Dr. Adrian PO Hoi-Chun
Hari Harilela Assistant Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, School of Science,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Dr. WANG Lan
Assistant Professor, Division of Life Science, School of Science,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Dr. Kathy LENG Kai
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Physics,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Dr. LI Can
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
The University of Hong Kong

Biographies of Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Awards 2023 recipients:

Dr. Adrian PO Hoi-Chun, Hari Harilela Assistant Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, School of Science, HKUST
Dr. Po is a theoretical condensed matter physicist who is broadly interested in the collective phenomena that arise when a large number of quantum particles interact, along with the intriguing interplay between symmetry, topology, and locality in quantum materials. He works across the multiple areas of strongly correlated electrons, magnetism and superconductivity, the fundamentals of band theory, topological materials discovery, 2D and moiré materials, and the relationship between quantum dynamics and quantum information theory. A major focus of his recent research work is the development of methods for describing and comprehending the physics of highly entangled quantum many-body states that are pertinent to quantum materials. (Click here for Dr. Po’s full biography)

Dr. WANG Lan, Assistant Professor, Division of Life Science, School of Science, HKUST
Dr. Wang is a biologist who is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that determine the health of the mitochondria, an organelle that provides biochemical energy to cellular processes. Mitochondrial dysfunction underlies many human diseases. Dr. Wang is also interested in discovering new mechanisms that regulate protein translation and how pathogens could take advantage of these mechanisms to manipulate the host cell for their own advantage. (Click here for Dr. Wang’s full biography)

Dr. Kathy LENG Kai, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Physics, PolyU
As a materials scientist, Dr. Leng’s current research examines 2D van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy, a process whereby a thin film of crystalline material is grown on a crystalline substrate without the constraints of lattice matching. The challenge is that growth on important semiconductor substrates often produces polycrystalline films, hindering 2D electronics development. Specifically, Dr. Leng’s research examines large area, single crystalline 2D hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) to be grown on semiconductors such as SiO2/Si substrate, as well as on a wide range of other substrates. Dr. Leng is also exploring the growth of various 2D HOIPs with ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties on 3D and 2D substrates, targeting nanometer-thick single crystalline HOIP films for large-scale electronic and spintronic device applications. (Click here for Dr. Leng’s full biography)

Dr. LI Can, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, HKU
Dr. Li’s research addresses the limitations of digital computers in performing tasks that the human brain excels at, such as face recognition, reasoning based on vague information, and learning from experience. These tasks require algorithms that can process analogue signals at the exact location where the information is stored, which is not possible with digital computers.  To address this limitation, researchers, including Dr. Li, are exploring an emerging memory device called a memristor, which can mimic the behaviour of biological synapses and neurons. Memristors allow for full analogue signal processing and can exploit the devices’ rich nonlinearity and stochasticity for much-increased computing complexity. Dr. Li’s proposed research aims to build brain-inspired circuits and systems with co-optimised algorithms and full analogue signal processing to enable more advanced artificial intelligence, which is difficult with conventional computers. (Click here for Dr. Li’s full biography)

About the Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Awards
The Croucher Tak Wah Mak Innovation Awards represent one of the Croucher Foundation’s most prestigious awards, granted only after a robust process involving a paper selection exercise, detailed international peer review and long discussions between Governors. The total value of each Innovation Award is HK$5 million.