Media

HKU Professor Receives Top Scientific Honor

02 May 2012

 

Professor Vivian Yam Wing-wah, Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor in Chemistry and Energy, and Chair of Chemistry of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for her excellence in original scientific research.  Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.  Professor Yam will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 150th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Professor Yam was elected along with 83 others by NAS in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. There are currently 2,152 active NAS members.  Among the NAS's renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell.  Nearly 200 living Academy members have won Nobel Prizes.

Professor Yam's main area of research is in inorganic / organometallic syntheses and photochemistry related to luminescence and solar energy conversion. The major focus is on the molecular design and synthesis of novel inorganic and organometallic metal complexes that may find potential applications as functional metal-based molecular materials. Professor Yam's seminal works on luminescent polynuclear metal complexes and clusters, and light-emitting carbon-rich organometallics have gained her international recognition.

She obtained her Bachelor and PhD degrees from HKU in 1985 and 1988 respectively. She then joined HKU's Department of Chemistry in 1990, and has been dedicated in teaching and research at the University since then.

For Professor Yam, election to the academy is a great achievement and a chance to more widely share her views with other scientists. She felt greatly honored to be elected and said: "I am flattered and feel greatly honored. The most gratifying thing is that they recognize and honor a purely homegrown HKU graduate, which is assuring to my students and their parents that Hong Kong is able to groom good scientists with international standing and recognition."  

She was thankful to her research team members for their dedicated hard work, and donors like Dr Philip Wong and Dr Wilson Wong, HKU and the community for their wide support given to scientific research.

HKU Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui was delighted at the news, which has recognized Professor Yam as a world-class scholar and her contributions in original research particularly in light-emitting materials and innovative ways of capturing solar energy.

He said: "We are thrilled that Professor Yam's work has been recognized with this rare honor. Her pioneering research has helped put HKU on the academic map nationally and internationally, and her outstanding teaching is a draw for talented graduate students and junior faculty,"

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering science and technology and to their use for the general welfare.  Established in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences has served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government.  For more information, or for the full list of newly elected members, visit http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer .

For media enquiries, please contact: Ms Trinni Choy, tel: 2859 2606 email: pychoy@hku.hk  or Ms Melanie Wan tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk