The Research Grants Council (RGC) has served the higher education sector and the research community in Hong Kong for more than two decades, during which the field of research has moved towards globalization and collaboration amidst intensifying competition for funding and for research talents. In the midst of this dynamic current, Professor Benjamin W Wah assumed Chairmanship of the RGC in January 2013, as Professor Roland Chin retired as the Chairman of RGC after a remarkable seven-year service.

Cells are the basic functional units of all living organisms. The current understanding of individual cell mechanisms is still in its infancy. A significant hurdle that severely restricts current cellular studies is the lack of efficient cell manipulation tools that can be used for probing, testing and controlling cellular behavior with micro/nano level precision.  

Stroke is a cerebrovascular accident with high disability and mortality rates. As stated in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Statistical Report 2005-2010, the number of annual stroke admissions to public hospitals has been increasing from 11,062 cases in 1981 to 25,614 in 2010. It is expected that the burden of stroke, giving rise to difficulties in motor disabilities and affecting the daily life of stroke victims, is likely to escalate substantially in Hong Kong in the future.

Attitude control of spacecraft provides the spacecraft the capabilities of rapid acquisition, tracking, and pointing, and it is also a benchmark control problem in the control community. A common challenge in spacecraft attitude control is the attenuation/ rejection of external disturbances caused by control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) or by the excitation of flexible appendages.

This project aims to enhance the capability of deformation monitoring for Qinghai-Tibet railway combining Differential Synthetic-Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) observations.

How did life originate on Earth? For over 50 years, scientists believed that life was the result of chemistry involving simple molecules such as methane and ammonia cooking in a primordial soup. In a recent paper published in Nature, Prof. Sun Kwok and Dr. Yong Zhang of the University of Hong Kong showed that old stars are capable of making very complex organic compounds.

The Research Grants Council (RGC) had the pleasure to receive a Scottish delegation, comprising university vice principals and heads of research agencies, during its visit to Hong Kong on 26-28 June 2013. The delegation was headed by Professor Albert Rodger, who is the Vice Principal of the University of Aberdeen and a Board Member & Chair of Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee of the Scottish Funding Council.
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