Research Impact Fund Committee (2025-26)
| Title/Sphere of Interest | |
|---|---|
| Chairman | |
| Professor Raymond Yung* | Jeffrey B Halter M.D. Collegiate Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Associate Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, U.S.A. Interests in rheumatology, arthritis, immunology and geriatrics |
| Members | |
| Professor Soon Ang* | Distinguished University Professor, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Interests in cultural intelligence, international organizational behavior, outsourcing and talent management |
| Professor Mike Ashfold* | Emeritus Professor, University of Bristol, United Kingdom Interests include physical chemistry/chemical physics, molecular photochemistry, spectroscopy and reaction dynamics, plasmas, plasma diagnosis, chemical vapour deposition, laser ablation, thin film growth and characterisation |
| Professor Brian James Baer* | Professor of Russian and Translation Studies, Department of Modern & Classical Language Studies, Kent State University, U.S.A. Interests in Russian, History of translation, Sexuality, Censorship, Translation pedagogy and Journal editorship |
| Professor Yihai Cao* | Professor of Vascular Biology, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden Interests in studying the fundamental mechanisms of angiogenesis, the key process of blood vessel formation, in various diseases, understanding molecular and functional mechanisms of angiogenesis in the onset and progression of most common and lethal human diseases such as cancer, metabolic disease, and cardiovascular disease |
| Professor Kin-shing Chan | Emeritus Professor, Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University, Hong Kong Interests in carbon-hydrogen bond activation, catalytic carbon-carbon bond activation by transition metal complexes, transition metal-catalyzed cross coupling, and green chemistry |
| Professor Wei Chen* | Chair Professor, Department of Biology, Southern University of Science and Technology, China Interests in Systems biology, Functional and medical genomics, Bioinformatics, Precision medicine and individualized therapy |
| Professor Siu-yin Cheung | Emeritus Professor and Adjunct Professor, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Interests in sport and exercise psychology, sport and leisure management, aging, physical education, as well as teaching pedagogy and gymnastics |
| Professor George T C Chiu* | Assistant Dean for Global Engineering Programs, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, U.S.A. Interests in mechatronics, dynamic systems and control, digital imaging and printing systems, functional printing and digital fabrication, robotics, perception-based engineering, human motor control, optimal and robust control |
| Professor Justin Jang Hann Chu* | Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore Interests in Virology, Antivirals, Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, Dengue Virus, Chikungunya Virus and Vaccine |
| Professor Hanming Fang* | Joseph M. Cohen Term Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Interests in applied microeconomic theory; empirical microeconomics; public economic; insurance markets; economics of discrimination and affirmative action |
| Professor Ronald Fischer* | Professor, Institute D'OR for Research and Education, Neuroscience and Neuroinformatics Group, Brazil Interests in the interplay between culture, cognition and behavior |
| Professor Tim Forsyth* | Professor of Environment and Development and Head of Department, Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom Interests in Southeast and South Asia (India; Indonesia; Laos; Myanmar; Nepal; Philippines; Thailand; Vietnam); climate change; environmental policy; social studies of science; social movements and environment; institution and governance |
| Professor Nasr M. Ghoniem* | Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. Interests in damage and failure of materials in mechanical design; mechanics and physics of material defects (point defects, dislocations, voids and cracks); material degradation in severe environments (e.g. nuclear, fusion, rocket engines, etc.); plasma and laser processing; materials non-equilibrium, pattern formation and instability phenomena; radiation interaction with materials (neutrons, electrons, particles, laser & photons) |
| Professor Ajay Goel* | Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, U.S.A. Interests in Gastrointestinal Cancers, developing early-detection blood tests for colon, pancreatic and ovarian cancers, test for pancreatic cancer that can detect the disease earlier, genomic-based precision oncology |
| Professor Tilmann Harder* | Professor for Marine Chemistry, Marine Chemistry, University of Bremen, Germany Interests in the Marine Chemical Ecology, Marine Natural Product Chemistry, Phytoplankton dynamics, Dissolved organic matter, Chromatography, Mass spectrometry and NMR |
| Professor Brad Holschuh* | Assistant Professor of Apparel Design, Department of Design, Housing and Apparel, College of Design, University of Minnesota, U.S.A. Interests in Wearable Technology, Active Materials, Soft Robotics, Medical Devices and Bioastronautics |
| Professor Kevin Houser* | Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering, College of Engineering, Oregon State University, U.S.A. Interests in architectural lighting & LED lighting, built environment, illuminating engineering, photonics, daylighting, visual perception, human health, and sustainability—all in support of high-performance buildings |
| Professor Heng Huang* | Brendan Iribe Endowed Professor in Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, U.S.A. Interests in Machine Learning, Data Mining, Big Data Computing, NLP, Bioinformatics, Neuroinformatics, Precision Medicine, Health Informatics, Computer Vision, Medical Image Analysis |
| Professor Woonghee Tim Huh* | Professor and Chair, Operations and Logistics Division, Professor in Operations and Supply Chain Management, Department of Operations and Logistics, UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada Interests in Inventory control, Supply chain management, Capacity planning and Operations research |
| Professor Zhigang Jiang* | Professor, School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A. Interests in quantum transport and infrared optical properties of low dimensional condensed matter systems |
| Professor Terry Lamb* | Professor of Languages and Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, Head of the Westminster Centre for Teaching Innovation Department of Modern Languages and Culture, University of Westminster, United Kingdom Interests in linguistic diversity and plurilingual pedagogies in the context of globalisation and urban studies; learner and teacher autonomy (and related pedagogies such as e-learning, distance and blended learning, self-access learning, problem based collaborative learning etc.) |
| Professor Wenbin Lin* | James Franck Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, U.S.A. Interests in sustainability and human health, metal-organic frameworks, catalysis, renewable energy, nanomedicine |
| Professor Huan Liu* | Regents Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, U.S.A. Interests in developing computational methods for data mining, machine learning, and social computing, and designing efficient algorithms to enable effective problem solving ranging from basic research, text/Web mining, bioinformatics, image mining, to real-world applications |
| Professor Jiangchuan Liu* | Professor, School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University, Canada Interests in Networking and multimedia systems and applications; in particular, multimedia content processing and communications, Internet architecture and protocols, wireless mobile networking, satellite networking, cloud and edge computing, online gaming and social networking, Internet of Things/RFID/backscatter, and energy-efficient computing and communication |
| Professor Zhilin Liu* | Professor and Director of the Public Policy Institute, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, China Interests in Urban Policy and Governance, Housing Policy, Urban Social Geography, Sustainable Development, New Institutionalism Theory |
| Professor Yi Lu* | Professor, Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. Interests in the interface between chemistry and biology. Specific areas of current interests include a) computational design and engineering of functional metalloenzymes as environmentally benign catalysts in renewable energy generation and pharmaceuticals; b) Fundamental understanding of DNAzymes and their applications in environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, gene editing and targeted drug delivery; and c) Employing principles from biology for directed assembly of nanomaterials with controlled morphologies and its applications in imaging and medicine |
| Professor Peter Lucas* | Emeritus Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Department of Data Science, University of Twente, Netherlands Interests in artificial intelligence, biomedical informatics, data science, Bayesian networks, model-based diagnosis, clinical decision-support systems |
| Professor Vincent Mak* | Professor of Marketing & Decision Sciences, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Interests in pricing, search decisions, decisions in networks and queues, decisions in competitive environments, competitive strategies, game theory, and experimental economics |
| Professor Raymond A. Mar* | Professor, Department of Psychology, York University, Canada Interests in imagining the self in fictional situations. Influence of fictional others. Association between reading narrative fiction and social abilities, underlying mechanisms and real-world ramifications |
| Professor Maria Masucci* | Professor, Senior, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden Interests in human tumor viruses. EBV, a lymphotropic herpes virus that is associated with lymphoid and epithelial cell malignancies including Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), immunoblastic lymphoma (IL) and Hodgkin's disease (HD). Interests in studying the mechanism by which EBV proteins expressed in malignant cells modify the cellular environment and regulate the interaction of the infected cells with the host immune system |
| Professor Stuart Maudsley* | Odysseus Chair of Receptor Pharmacology, Head of Receptor Biology Lab, Department of Biomedical sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium Interests in understanding how complex and multifactorial neurodegenerative diseases are generated through the interaction of networks of genes and proteins, and subsequently how to develop tractable receptor-based therapeutic strategies that exert beneficial effects across these pathological networks |
| Professor Tracey Moore* | Interim Vice President and Head of the Faculty of Health, The University of Sheffield, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom Interests in recognising and responding to adult patient deterioration within an acute ward environment and the impact of track and trigger systems in detecting patients at risk of clinical deterioration |
| Professor Stephen T Newman* | Professor of Innovative Manufacturing Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, United Kingdom Interests in machining science, computer aided process planning, Machine tool metrology, CAD/CAM |
| Professor Luis Perez-Gonzalez* | Professor of Translation Studies, Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, University of Agder, Norway Interests in The Contestation of Key Political and Scientific Concepts in the Digital Sphere, Engaged Subtitling and Citizen Media in the Digital Culture, Fandom and Audiovisual Translation and Discourse, Translation and the Law |
| Professor Duc Truong Pham* | Chance Professor of Engineering, Head of School of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Interests in rapid manufacturing, micro manufacturing, automation, robotics, IT and intelligent systems |
| Professor Krislert Samphantharak* | Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Interim Director, International Studies Program, School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California San Diego, U.S.A. Interests in households and firms in emerging economies |
| Professor Matthias Schwab* | Professor and Chair of Clinical Pharmacology, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Tuebingen, University of Tübingen, Germany Interests in pharmacogenomics / epigenetics of drug metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters and nuclear receptors; Pharmacogenomics of anticancer and immunosuppressive drugs; Drug-Drug Interaction and clinical consequences; Pediatric clinical pharmacology; Novel methodologies in genomic research and molecular diagnostics; Novel therapeutic strategies in renal cancer |
| Professor Feng Shao* | Investigator and Deputy Director for Academic Affairs, National Institute of Biological Sciences, China Interests in studying molecular mechanisms of bacterial infection and host innate immunity defense |
| Professor Steve Waiching Sun* | Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University, U.S.A. Interests in the mechanics and physics of geological and porous materials such as soil, rocks, concrete, and salt |
| Professor David T. Takeuchi* | Associate Dean for Faculty Excellence, School of Social Work, University of Washington, U.S.A. Interests in ethnic minority mental health, healthy disparities, research design and data analysis |
| Professor Dacheng Tao* | Distinguished University Professor, College of Computing and Data Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Interests in artificial intelligence, including computer vision, data science, deep learning, image processing, machine learning, medical informatics, social media, and video surveillance |
| Professor Hanghang Tong* | Associated Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A. Interests in large scale data mining and machine learning, especially for graph and multimedia data with applications to social networks analysis, healthcare, cyber-security and e-commerce |
| Professor Wei Wang* | Leonard Kleinrock Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of California, U.S.A. Interests in big data analytics, data mining, machine learning, natural language processing, bioinformatics and computational biology, and computational medicine |
| Professor Ke Wu* | Full Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Montreal (Ecole Polytechnique), Canada Interests in substrate integrated circuits and systems, antenna arrays, field theory and joint field/circuit modeling, ultrafast interconnects, wireless power transmission and harvesting, microwave photonics, and megahertz–terahertz technologies and transceivers, including RFICs/monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for multifunction wireless systems and biomedical applications |
| Professor Kui Wu* | Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria, Canada Interests in network science, the study of network representations of physical, biological, and social phenomena leading to predictive models of these phenomena. Analyzing big data from a networked environment, Prof Wu’s current work applies theories and techniques of network science, including graph theory, machine learning, statistical inference, and data mining, to solve real-world problems |
| Professor Wei Wu* | Director of Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria Interests in ground investigation; numerical simulation; geotechnical expertise; geotechnical design; geohazard |
| Professor Hongxi, Kevin, Xu* | Distinguished Professor and Dean, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Interests in traditional Chinese medicine, new drug discovery from natural resources, development of botanical dietary supplements from herbal medicines, finding natural lead compounds from medicinal plants and in developing new drug based on Chinese medicines against different disease targets such as cancer, HIV, HSV, HBV and metabolic diseases |
| Professor Sean Xin Xu* | Starr Endowed Chair Professor, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Associate Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, China Interests in Digital Transformation, Analytics and AI, IT Business Value, IT Strategy, IT Governance, E commerce |
| Professor Wenqing Xu* | Director, National Facility for Protein Science in Shanghai, School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, China Interests in Structural and Mechanistic Studies of Cell Signaling |
| Professor Xiaohui Yu* | Professor and the Graduate Program Director, School of Information Technology, York University, Canada Interests in information technologies, big data management and analytics, database systems, machine learning |
| Professor Qiang Zhang* | Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, China Interests in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries, Graphene, Carbon Nanatubes, Electrocatalysis and Lithium Metal |
| Professor Chunfeng Zhao* | Professor of Orthopedics and Biomedical Engineering, Division of Orthopedic Research, Department of Orthopedics Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, U.S.A. Interests in Orthopedic Biomechanics, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Connective tissues Research, Tendon and related Soft Tissue Research, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Spine biomechanics, Medical Imaging Development |
| Professor Jianhua Zhao* | Chief Scientist, Professor, National Key Laboratory of Spintronics, Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, China Interests include semiconductor spintronics, semiconductor low-dimensional quantum materials |
| Professor Ming Hao Zheng* | Winthrop Professor of Orthopaedic Research, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Australia Interests in the field of regenerative medicine, in particular the translation of novel science into clinical practice, including the regeneration of tendon and cartilage using a patient’s own stem cells |
| Professor Yi Zhou* | Professor, Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Theory and Computation, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Interests in understanding and revealing novel quantum phenomena in many-particle systems |
| Professor Luo Zuo* | Provost’s Chair Professor of Accounting and Finance, Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore Interests in Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance |
| Secretary | |
| Assistant Secretary General (Research)4, UGC | |
* Members outside Hong Kong