HKIAS Rising Star Lecture Series presents trailblazing studies by young researchers and early-career scientists
Education | 10 Dec 2021
At City University of Hong Kong (CityU), a growing body of research contributed by some of its most promising researchers has emerged at the intersection of fast-developing fields in fundamental science, accelerating technology translations.
As an integral part of their mission of championing cross-disciplinary ideas and their real-world potential, the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) at CityU recently presented its Rising Star Lectures in an inperson and online hybrid mode. The lecture series covered five major fields in basic science, covering Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Life Sciences, and featured 15 short-listed scholars from CityU who had gone through a rigorous selection process.
According to Professor Jacob C. Huang, HKIAS Executive Director, nurturing new talent with a rewarding career has been a major mission of HKIAS since its establishment in 2015. “This time, we want to celebrate the accomplishments and promises of researchers at the early stages of their independent careers,” he said.
Professor Huang explained that the goal is to promote diversity in academia, and to draw international attention to the latest work from the next generation of academic leaders. Following their research presentation and interactive exchange, the speakers were awarded substantial grants to conduct their research projects at CityU.
The HKIAS Rising Star Lecture Series was partly supported by the Kwang Hua Educational Foundation.
Mathematics
On September 15, three young mathematicians at CityU, who delivered the first of the HKIAS Rising Star Lecture Series, explored new approaches to navigating complexities with models. Professor Junhui Wang—a specialist in statistical machine learning—started this series with a discussion of latent factor modeling, which can be used to improve the analytical predictability and accuracy of relational data. Statistical mechanics expert Dr. Pierre Nolin discussed how self-organized criticality can explain the complexity in many natural phenomena, including modeling forest fires. To complete this session, Dr. Xianpeng Hu—who studies partial differential equations—explored advances in understanding compressible versions of the well-known Navier-Stokes equations that describe the motion of viscous fluids.
Chemistry
Three experts introduced their new findings of interface chemistry, biological chemistry, and intercalation chemistry on September 30. Materials scientist, Professor Angus Hin Lap Yip explored the many crucial applications of metal halide perovskites, which make up a recent class of semiconductors that can be tuned to improve the optoelectrical properties of solar cells and LEDs. Next, Dr. Chun Kit Kwok—a co-founder of the Hong Kong RNA Club—addressed the RNA G-quadruplex and its interactions with proteins to treat diseases such as cancer. Dr. Chaoliang Tan closed this lecture with an update on structural engineering of layered nanomaterials by lithiation intercalation chemistry, which can be applied to photothermal cancer therapy and aqueous zinc-ion batteries.
Physics
Condensed matter physics, particularly the properties of superconducting materials, is an area of intense study at CityU. To open the Physics series on October 19, Dr. Danfeng Li described his role in discovering the world’s first infinite-layer nickelate superconductors through a soft-chemistry approach and how these materials might allow zero electrical resistance that could revolutionize high-performance electric power transmission. For more on power, battery expert Dr. Qi Liu explained how changes in using lithium cobalt oxide could improve a battery’s energy capacity but not destroy its structure. Wrapping up this lecture, microelectronics engineering specialist Dr. Cheng Wang showcased his success in enhancing the light-matter interactions in nanophotonic structures, such as integrated lithium niobate photonic circuits, which can be applied to optical communications and nonlinear optics.
Materials Science
Materials science is one of the key research fields of the CityU and HKIAS. Opening the November 5 lecture, Professor Yang Lu—an expert on nanomechanics of the hardest natural material, diamond—highlighted diamond’s potential as a future semiconductor and how microfabrication and deep-strain engineering can optimize diamond’s electronic properties for use in microelectronics, quantum-information technologies, and optoelectronics. In describing the confinement of light on the nanoscale in optical cavities, Dr. Dangyuan Lei used plasmonic and photonic low-dimensional materials and structures as examples and revealed their unprecedented potential applications, such as using dielectric microcavities to construct a water-proof perovskite microlaser and symmetry-broken particle-on-film nanocavities to boost the second-harmonic conversion efficiency of noble metals. Last in this session, Dr. Tao Yang revealed his passion for developing new materials for advanced engineering applications by introducing the audience to a family of chemically complex intermetallic alloys.
Life Sciences
In the final lecture of the HKIAS Rising Star Series on November 24, CityU researchers explained how basic research in the life sciences might be translated to patients. As an example, Dr. Gigi Pui Chi Lo—a specialist in photosensitizing agents—talked about advances in nanophotosensitizers that could improve photodynamic therapy in cancer patients. Another expert in cancer biology and proteomics, Dr. Liang Zhang proposed the CRISPR-Assisted RNA-Protein Interaction Detection method to delineate RNA-protein interactions in live cells, which could lead to the development of new biomarkers and therapeutics. Last, neuroscientist, Dr. Kwok On Lai updated attendees on how the motor protein kinesin mediates intracellular transport to control the formation of neuronal connections. This work could answer long-standing questions surrounding dendritic mRNA transport and translation, two important processes disrupted in various brain disorders.
Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study, City University of Hong Kong
Email: hkias@cityu.edu.hk
Tel: +852 3442 6611
Web: http://www.ias.cityu.edu.hk/en/
