Theme-based Research Scheme

Theme-based Research Scheme Selection Panel

Committee Member Title/Institution
Chairman

Professor Paul K L Yu*

Provost of Revelle College, William S C Chang Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego, U.S.A.

Interests in optoelectronic materials, devices and engineering, modern communication, microwave photonics (e.g. transmission of high frequency optical signals and signal processing).

Members

Theme 1: Understanding Diseases and Disease Prevention

Professor Hongtao Yu* Chair Professor and Dean of School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, P.R.C.

Interests in combining cell biological, biochemical, and biophysical methods; to understand cellular mechanisms governing genomic stability at the molecular and atomic levels.
Professor Xiao-fan Wang* Donald and Elizabeth Cooke Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, School of Medicine, Duke University, U.S.A.

Interests in surgery, elucidation of molecular nature and signaling mechanisms associated with the initiation of cellular senescence and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of various types of human cancer.
Prof Zhengming Chen* Richard Peto Professor of Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Interests in environmental and genetic causes of chronic disease, evidence-based medicine and evaluation of widely practicable treatments for chronic diseases.
Professor Tony Gin Emeritus Professor, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Interests in anaesthesia, pain medicine and pharmacology.
Professor Jennifer Grandis* American Cancer Society Professor, Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Interests in Head and neck cancer, signal transduction, precision medicine, and preclinical cancer models.
Professor William Hunter* Professor of Structural Biology, Divison of Biological Chemistry & Drug Discovery, College of Life Science,University of Dundee, United Kingdom

Interests in structural biology and structure-function-inhibition of antibacterial and antiparasitic drug targets.
Professor Kay Tee Khaw* Professor of Clinical Gerontology, Clinical Gerontology Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, U.K.

Interests in epidemiology, public health, ageing, cardiovascular disease and nutrition.
Professor Simin Liu* Professor of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Surgery, Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, U.S.A.

Interests in Nutrition, Genomics, Preventive Cardiology, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Global Health.
Professor Fanxin Long* Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Interests in molecular regulation of skeletal development, homeostasis and regeneration.
Professor Jonas Rosendahl* Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Interests in genetic studies in gastroenterology, functional studies of genetic variants (in vitro/in vivo), clinical research in gastroenterology.
Professor Feng Shao* Investigator and Deputy Director for Academic Affairs, National Institute of Biological Sciences, P.R.C.

Interests in bacteria-host interaction, innate immunity, inflammation.
Professor Richard Strugnell* Professor of Microbiology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Interests in microbiology/immunology interface, and in basic bacterial molecular biology of key microbiological phenomena including bacterial physiology, biofilm development and adaptation to intracellular growth.

Theme 2: Developing a Sustainable Environment

Professor Pedro Alvarez* George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, U.S.A.

Interests in environmental implications and applications of nanotechnology, bioremediation, fate and transport of toxic chemicals, water footprint of biofuels, water treatment and reuse, and antibiotic resistance control.
Professor Gehan Amaratunga* Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Interests in nanoscale materials and device design for electronics and energy conversion, novel materials and device structures for low cost, high efficiently solar cells, power electronics for optimum grid connection of large photovoltaic electric generation systems, integrated and discrete semiconductor devices for power switching and control.
Professor Ronaldo Borja* Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, U.S.A.

Interests in developing strain localization and failure models for soils and rocks, modeling coupled solid deformation / fluid flow phenomena in porous materials, and finite element modeling of faulting, cracking, and fracturing in quasi-brittle materials.
Professor Mark Andrew Bradford* Scientia Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia

Interests in structures subjected to extreme actions, including fire and blast, geometric and material non-linear response of structures including arches, domes and curved beams, dynamics and elasto-dynamic buckling; numerical methods, structural retrofit, and design codes.
Professor Wesley Cantwell* Director, Aerospace Research and Innovation Centre and Associate Dean for Research, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Khalifa University of Science Technology and Research, U.A.E.

Interests in composite materials, impact, lightweight aerospace structures, advanced manufacturing techniques, environmentally-friendly composites, polymers, fracture mechanics, dynamic properties of materials and smart structures.
Professor Huosheng Hu* Professor of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, U.K.

Interests in intelligent systems and autonomous mobile robots, networked robots and network enable systems / devices, smart sensors, actuators and mechatronics, sensor integration and data fusion algorithms, tele-rehabilitation, tele-care, tele-health, intelligent wheelchairs, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and neural networks in robotics, pervasive computing, mobile computing, e-learning, distributed computer architecture and parallel processing.
Professor Didier Pribat* Research Director, The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et des Couches Minces (LPICM)

Interests in Nanoscience and nanotechnologies, crystal growth, and materials science.

Theme 3: Enhancing Hong Kong's Strategic Position as a Regional and International Business Centre

Professor Nancy Y Wong* Professor, Consumer Science, School of Human Ecology and Faculty Director, Kohl's Center for Retailing Excellence, University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A.

Interests in culture, materialism and emotion, cross-cultural research methods, consumer decision making and public policy.
Professor Rosalie Tung* Ming&Stella Wong Professor of International Business, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Interests in international business, international management.
Professor Andrew Tat Tin Ching* Professor, Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A.

Interests in quantitative marketing, industrial organization, applied econometrics, economics and marketing of the following industries: pharmaceutical, healthcare, consumer package goods and video games.
Professor Tim Woonghee Huh* Professor and Chair, Operations and Logistics Division, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada

Interests in inventory control, pricing, capacity, operations management, data-driven methods, business analytics and health-care operations.
Professor Luo Zuo* Provost’s Chair Professor of Accounting and Finance, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Interests in the intersection of accounting and finance, behavioral economics, entrepreneurship, governance, technology, and sustainability.
Professor Sean Xin Xu* Professor, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Associate Dean, School of Economics and Management , Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Interests in digital enablement and digital transformation, IT governance, analytics, IT business value, IT strategy and e-commerce.

Theme 4: Advancing Emerging Research and Innovations Important to Hong Kong

Professor Wing-kam Liu* Walter P. Murphy Professor of Mechanical and Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, U.S.A.

Interests in nonlinear finite elements, multiscale methods for materials design and engineering simulation, linear and nonlinear fluid structure interactions, seismic analysis and vulnerability of structures, computational nanotechnology, multiscale computational materials design, microfluidics and electrokinetics of manipulation and assembly of nano/bio molecules, modeling of MEMS/NEMS and energy harvesting devices, microfluidic electrokinetic assembly of nano- and bio-molecules, nano-diamond based device for engineered medicine delivery.
Professor Sylvie Lorente* Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Villanova University, U.S.A.

Interests in heat and mass transfer, fluid flows, buildings construction.
Professor Catherine Brinson* Professor and Chair of Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, U.S.A.

Interests in advanced material systems and developing new methods to characterize and to model material behavior.
Professor George T C Chiu* 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.
Ir Professor Alan Hiu-fung Lam CEO of Sengital Limited, Hong Kong

Interests in Internet of things and artificial intelligence.
Professor Baochun Li* Professor of Computer Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada

Interests in the areas of cloud computing, distributed systems such as distributed machine learning and federated learning, security and privacy, and networking.
Professor Gigi Luk* Professor, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology,McGill University, Canada

Interests in Bilingualism, cognitive development, lifespan development and neuroimaging.
Dr Ray Wai-sing Man Founder and President of Amonics limited, Hong Kong

Interests in Photonics and fiber optics.
Professor Tina Tse-nga Ng* Professor, Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California, San Diego

Interests in Flexible electronics for seamless human-computer interactions, and 2D materials
Professor Witold Pedrycz* Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada

Interests in the realm of Computational Intelligence (CI), bioinformatics, and Granular Computing regarded as a recent development in the design and analysis of intelligent and human-centric systems
Professor Yuanyuan Yang* SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University, U.S.A.

Interests in cloud computing, data center networking, edge computing, wireless and mobile networks, and parallel and distributed computing and systems.
Mr Daniel Wang-tak Yu Former Chief Executive Officer, Nano and Advanced Materials Institute

Interests in Nanotechnology and advance materials.

 

* Members outside Hong Kong