Media

Three Distinguished HKU Scholars made Croucher Senior Research Fellows

26 Mar 2010

 

Three outstanding scholars of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) were awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation today (March 26) in recognition of their excellent scientific achievements and contributions to the international scientific community.  Professor Chan Kwong-yu and Professor Sun Hongzhe of the Department of Chemistry, and Professor Shen Shunqing of the Department of Physics, all from the HKU Faculty of Science, were among the four recipients of the Senior Research Fellowship Award this year. The awards were presented by the Honourable John Tsang Chun-wah, JP, Financial Secretary of the HKSAR Government.

Professor Chan Kwong-yu's research focuses on multi-scale structured materials for electrochemical technologies such as fuel cells, batteries, super-capacitors, and ozone generation. These technologies are important for clean energy and environment. The bottlenecks in energy conversion can be widened with fundamental understanding and optimization of various transport limited processes in the materials. 

Professor Sun Hongzhe's research interests lie at the frontier of inorganic chemistry and biology/ medicine. He recently has focused on structural biology of metallo-proteins, and metallomics and metalloproteomics. He is an international leading expert in the latter. By using chemical biology and metallomic approaches, he has identified several key metallo-drug binding proteins and characterized selected metallo-transport and storage proteins in microorganisms which provide a basis for mechanism-based drug design.

Professor Shen Shunqing is an expert in the field of condensed matter physics. He is distinguished for his research works on spintronics of semiconductors, quantum magnetism and orbital physics in transition metal oxides, and novel quantum states of condensed matters. He proposed a theory of topological Anderson insulator, spin transverse force, resonant spin Hall effect, and a theory of phase separation and antiferromagnetism. He proved existence of antiferromagnetic and off-diagonal long-range order in itinerant electron systems.

They will each receive a fellowship of about US$100,000 for the University to recruit replacement teachers to take over their teaching and administrative duties for one year. This will enable them to devote more time and effort to research work.  They will also receive a grant of HK$60,000 for research expenses.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Melanie Wan, Communication and Public Relations Office, HKU (Tel:2859 2600/email: melwkwan@hku.hk)

Professor Chan Kwong-yu (Department of Chemistry, HKU) received the award from the Financial Secretary Honourable John Tsang Chun-wah.	Professor Shen Shunqing (Department of Physics,HKU) received the award from the Financial Secretary Honourable John Tsang Chun-wah.
Professor Sun Hongzhe (Department of Chemistry, HKU) received the award from the Financial Secretary Honourable John Tsang Chun-wah.	Three outstanding scholars of HKU were awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation. From left: Professor Chan Kwong-yu(Department of Chemistry), Professor Sun Hongzhe (Department of Chemistry) and Professor Shen Shunqing (Department of Physics).
Three outstanding scholars of the University of Hong Kong, were awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation in recognition of their excellent scientific achievements and contributions to the international scientific community. Warmest congratulations from HKU colleagues.