News & Stories

Three distinguished professors from the University attended a luncheon on October 15 to receive awards as the top scientists in the globe by Thomson Reuters for their outstanding research achievements. The trio included in the list of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014 are Prof Benzhong Tang, - Stephen Kam-chuen Cheong Professor of Science, Chair Professor of Chemistry and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Prof Tianshou Zhao, Chair Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at HKUST, Director of the HKUST Energy Institute, and a Senior Fellow of the HKUST Institute for Advanced Study; and Dr Jacky W Y Lam from theDepartment of Chemistry.

As we all know, proteins are essential to all living organisms including human beings. Most of the enzymes are made of proteins, and there are countless enzymes on earth that function as catalysts, playing an important role in speeding up biological reactions in living cells. We simply cannot live without enzymes. Recently, a team of scientists at the IAS HKUST-Scripps R&D Laboratory has discovered 250 new proteins with previously unidentified activities. The research was led by Prof Paul Schimmel, the Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute (California and Florida) and a visiting professor of the IAS. Detailed findings were published in Science in July.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) signed a memorandum with Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT) today to map out the details of co-hosting the “National Challenge Cup” – a competition branded as the Olympiad of Science and Technology for university students. It is the first time for a local university to co-host the event in the Cup’s 25 years of history.The biennial "National Challenge Cup" is a mega contest in academic and technological innovation for university students in China. Since Tsinghua University first hosted the event, it has turned into an iconic competition on science and innovation with its scale growing from a few hundred participants out of 19 institutes, to nearly 7,000 students from over 400 universities. Winners included a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, nearly 10 heads of state key laboratories and over 220 professors and doctoral advisors.

Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have received two awards in the 2013 Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) presented by the Ministry of Education - one first-class and one second-class award. Prof Joseph Hun-wei Lee, Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies congratulated the winning research teams. "The prizes are recognition of our University's on-going efforts to pursue excellence in education, research and innovation. We will continue to look for more collaborative opportunities to deepen ties between local and Mainland scientists, with a view to boost socio-economical development in Hong Kong and Mainland China at large," Prof Lee said.

Prof Ben Zhong Tang, Stephen Kam Chuen Cheong Professor of Science and Chair Professor in the Department of Chemistry at HKUST, has been selected as a laureate of the 27th Khwarizmi International Award (KIA) by the Iranian Organization for Science and Technology. Prof Tang received the Khwarizmi International Award, Second Class, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and its high-tech applications in the areas of optoelectronic devices, chemical sensors, and biological probes.

As communities around the world are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of green and sustainable energy sources, fuel cells that convert chemical energy of hydrogen, natural gas, and alcohols directly to electricity have become a hot research topic. Current energy technologies that use fossil fuels, such as diesel, coal and oil, face many challenges including low efficiency, limited supply, air pollution, and climate change. Yet, to date, renewable energy still accounts for less than 3% of all electricity produced worldwide. Power density record Prof Zhao, Director of the HKUST Energy Institute, and his researchers have become global pioneers in raising the performance of Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells (DAFC). Among other achievements, his team holds the internationally acknowledged world record for the power density of direct ethanol fuel cells.

Prof Jian-shu Li, Chair Professor in the Department of Mathematicsat HKUST, has been elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for his outstanding achievements in Mathematics, becoming the first Hong Kong-based scholar elected to the Academy's Division of Mathematics and Physics. The honor brings the total number of CAS members at HKUST to six. CAS membership is the highest academic recognition conferred by the Chinese government for science and technology research achievements. The election of CAS members takes place biennially, with the total number of new members kept under 60 each time. There are stringent nomination, appraisal and election processes. Members are elected under one of six categories: Mathematics and Physics, Chemistry, Life Sciences and Medical Sciences, Information Technological Sciences and Technology Sciences.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) PhD student Zhang Shanchao, Department of Physics, has won the 2013 Young Scientist Award. Zhang was awarded the honor in the Physical/ Mathematical Science category for the project "Coherent Quantum Interaction Between Photons and Atoms". He also received the Best Poster Award for his poster on "Single-Photon Absorption and Reemission in Two-Level Cold Atoms" at the 21st Annual Conference of Hong Kong Institution of Science. Another PhD student Chen Shuming from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, received the runner-up prize in the Engineering Science Category with his project on white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs).