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Three Distinguished HKU Scholars receive Croucher Awards

24 Mar 2009

Three outstanding scholars of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), were awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship and Senior Medical Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation today (March 24) in recognition of their excellent scientific achievements and contributions to the international scientific community.

Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing Wan (Department of Mechanical Engineering); Professor Wang Jian (Department of Physics) and Dr John Malcolm Nicholls (Department of Pathology), were presented the award by Mr Wong Yan Lung, SC, JP, the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Professor Ngan's current research focuses on discovering how submicron-sized materials behave mechanically and developing theoretical understanding of such behaviour. Professor Ngan said he was thrilled to receive the award. "As a person who grew up and received the major part of my education in Hong Kong, I was previously awarded a Croucher Scholarship and then a Croucher Fellowship. To be able to receive the highest award from Croucher Foundation is indeed my honour."

Professor Wang has worked on a number of different fields including critical phenomena and phase transition, localization of light and photonic crystals, as well as biophysics. His current research is quantum transport in mesoscopic and nanoscale device systems. He was happy to receive this award and thank the University of Hong Kong and Physics Department for their continuous support.

While Dr Nicholls extends his research work to investigate into influenza receptor binding and novel therapies in an ex-vivo setting. In 2003, he was a key member of the research team at the University of Hong Kong which isolated and characterized the novel SARS coronavirus. Since that time he has authored many highly cited publications on the interaction of viruses with receptors in the lung and respiratory tract and his work on SARS and avian influenza. Dr Nicholls said he was very honoured to be awarded the "Senior Medical Research Fellowship".

The value of each fellowship is about US$100,000. Funds are awarded to each fellowship recipient of the university, enabling the university to recruit replacement teachers to take over the recipient's teaching and administrative duties for the period of the fellowship. This enables the award winner to devote more time and effort to research work. Each winner will also receive a grant towards research of HK$60,000.

For photos of the award presentation ceremony, please go to http://www.hku.hk/hkumedia and check icon "Photo Gallery".

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Joanne Yung, Manager (Media), External Relations Office, HKU (Tel:2859 2600/E-mail: hkumedia@hku.hk )

Three outstanding scholars of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), were awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship and Senior Medical Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation (on March 24, 2009) in recognition of their excellent scientific achievements and contributions to the international scientific community. Warmest congratulations from HKU colleagues.	From left: Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing Wan, Dr John Malcolm Nicholls and Professor Wang Jian
Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing Wan (HKU Department of Mechanical Engineering) received the award from (right) Mr Wong Yan Lung, SC, JP, the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong SAR Government.	Dr John Malcolm Nicholls (HKU Department of Pathology) received the award from (left) Mr Wong Yan Lung, SC, JP, the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong SAR Government.
Professor Wang Jian (Department of Physics) received the award from (left) Mr Wong Yan Lung, SC, JP, the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong SAR Government.	Three outstanding scholars of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), were awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship and Senior Medical Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation (on March 24, 2009) in recognition of their excellent scientific achievements and contributions to the international scientific community. Warmest congratulations from HKU colleagues.
From left: Dr John Malcolm Nicholls (HKU Department of Pathology), Professor Wang Jian (HKU Department of Physics) and Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing Wan (HKU Department of Mechanical Engineering)

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