Physicist Wins China’s ‘Nobel Prize’

Hung Hing Ying Distinguished Visiting Professor in Science and Technology and alumnus of HKU’s Department of Physics, Professor Luk Kam-biu, has been named a laureate of China’s 2019 Future Science Prize. The Future Science Prize is considered China’s ‘Nobel Prize’ and is awarded jointly by groups of scientists and entrepreneurs. Professor Luk, who is also a Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won the prize in physical sciences jointly with Professor Wang Yifang, Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Local Honours

HKU scholars performed well in local award schemes that recognise quality, impactful research in both humanities and the sciences.

Four of the nine recipients of the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme of the University Grants Committee (UGC)  came from HKU, the most of any local institution. They included Professor Brendan Weekes of the Faculty of Education for a study on intervention and prevention of neurodegenerative disease in the Greater Bay Area; Professor Kendall Johnson of the School of English for a study of early American missionary printing in China; Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun of the Faculty of Law for a study of the role of the judiciary and judicial independence under Hong Kong’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’ arrangement; and Professor Frank He Xin, also Faculty of Law, for a study of gendered divorce litigation in China.

Professor Sydney Tang Chi-wai in the Department of Medicine was awarded the Croucher Senior Medical Research Fellowship for his work to deepen understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of chronic progressive kidney disease.

The pair have led the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment and contributed to the discovery of a new type of neutrino oscillation, which opens the door for new advances in physics. HKU is a co-leader of the Daya Bay project with 41 other universities and research institutions and Professor Luk praised the teamwork involved, singling out HKU. “HKU has played a special role in this endeavour. It was through the first meeting held in the Physics Department at HKU that the Daya Bay project was launched. The generous support of the HKU administration during the early stage of the initiative undoubtedly seeded the success of the experiment,” he said.

Professor Luk previously won the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and used part of the fund to establish the Luk Kam-Biu Prize in Experimental Physics in HKU’s Department of Physics to encourage students to specialise in experimental physics. He is also mentoring Assistant Professor Dr Jenny Lee in the Department of Physics in nuclear physics.

World-leading Researchers

Thirteen HKU academics were identified as being among the top 1% in their field in Clarivate Analytics’ list of ‘Highly Cited Researchers 2019’. Inclusion in the list is based on producing multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations in their field during the year, and thus have significant impact in their respective fields of study. The cross-field category is to acknowledge researchers who are recognised as leaders in more than one field.

HKU’s research success has been built on recruiting and nurturing talented scholars at all stages of their careers. Their excellence continued to be recognised by their peers in 2019.

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