Thirty-two outstanding scientists at CityUHK recognised by national funding; Scholar from the Department of Biomedical Engineering receives highest honour for young scientists

Thirty-two outstanding scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) have been awarded funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) for 2024. Among them, Professor Xu Chenjie, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, received RMB4 million from the “National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars”, which is the highest-level talent-development programme under the NSFC for young researchers and was opened to Hong Kong and Macao for the first time this year. Additionally, Professor Wang Wenxiong, from the School of Energy and Environment, was awarded Key Programme funding of RMB2.3 million.

Three scholars were each awarded RMB2 million from the “Excellent Young Scientists Fund”, and 21 scholars were each awarded RMB300,000 from the “Young Scientists Fund”.

Professor Freddy Boey, President of CityUHK, said, “The research projects of 32 CityUHK scholars have received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China this year, achieving remarkable results. This underscores the University's commitment to promoting innovative research and having a positive impact on society through a series of influential projects.”

Professor Xu was awarded the “National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars” for the project titled “Microneedle biomedical devices for drug delivery and biosensing”. Professor Xu has developed a series of microneedle medical devices through innovative structure design, biomaterial selection, synthesis and modification, and multi-component integration. Among his innovations, the cryomicroneedle is the first microneedle device to enable long-term storage and precise intradermal delivery of living cells. The highly swellable microneedle allows non-invasive, efficient collection of skin interstitial fluid for real-time monitoring. The conductive microneedle for anaesthetic delivery also addresses the issue of needle phobia in dental procedures.

In the past five years, Professor Xu has published over 50 papers as a corresponding author in renowned journals, including Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Reviews Bioengineering, Nature Communications and Science Advances. Two of his microneedle devices received ethical approval for clinical trials. In the next five years, he will continue to develop novel microneedle biomedical devices for biosensing and cancer immunotherapy through artificial intelligence and biomimicry.

Professor Wang was awarded Key Programme funding for the project titled “The biokinetic behaviors and environmental toxicity effects of micro-/nano-plastics in typical biological functional groups”. Professor Wang and his team will develop a variety of advanced functional materials to in situ visualise the ingestion and transport of microplastics along the food chain in marine organisms of different functional groups. The project will then investigate the exposure of microplastics in the real marine environment and the targeted organs of action. In addition, Professor Wang will combine single-cell high-throughput sequencing to screen highly sensitive and specific biomarkers, and finally explore the potential marine environment risks of microplastics.

Professor Hou Junhui, from the Department of Computer Science, and Professor Ma Junzhang and Professor Zhang Zhedong, from the Department of Physics, were awarded the “Excellent Young Scientists Fund”.

Professor Hou was awarded for the project titled “High-dimensional Visual Information Reconstruction and Processing”. Targeting various plen-optical imaging systems, Professor Hou’s team constructed deep computational reconstruction models leveraging physical imaging degradation. These models enable convenient, low-cost acquisition of high-resolution light field images and hyperspectral images. In addition, the team developed relevant modules and a compression framework to address the challenges of high dimensionality and large data volume in light field data. The team also developed robust low-rank matrix optimisation models that consider both global and local factors to achieve distinguishable representations of quality degraded hyperspectral images. In the area of geometric visual information, Professor Hou and his team constructed an efficient processing paradigm based on regularisation representation of 3D point cloud data and introduced differential geometry theory into the deep-learning framework to solve geometric reconstruction and computational problems.

Professor Ma was awarded for the project titled “Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Characterisation of Quantum Materials”. Professor Ma’s selected project explores collective excitation effects in condensed matter using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. He also has a series of research achievements. The group explored stable mobile excitonic states in one-dimensional metals through experiments and developed a corresponding theoretical model. They also discovered unpaired Weyl points in solid materials that exceed the Nielsen-Ninomiya no-go theorem; and they hypothesised that spin fluctuations in magnetic Dirac semimetals can effectively break local time-reversal symmetry, leading to the generation of fluctuating Weyl fermions. Additionally, they observed three-component fermions and their associated surface Fermi arcs in solid states, confirming the existence of unconventional fermions beyond Dirac and Weyl analogues in high-energy physics. Notably, they made the first observation of hourglass fermions on the surface of nonsymmorphic topological insulators. With the funding support, Professor Ma plans to further investigate the new electronic states of low-dimensional correlated systems and topological systems, as well as their tunability, through experimental methods.

Professor Zhang was awarded for the project titled “Quantum-light ultrafast spectroscopy for molecules”. This project aims to advance quantum-light ultrafast spectroscopy by integrating ultrafast spectroscopy with quantum optics. The goal is to study the highly excited-state dynamics of molecules and improve the resolution, sensitivity and selectivity of spectroscopy to address the challenge of time-frequency scales in ultrafast spectroscopy. Professor Zhang’s team developed the nonlinear optical spectroscopy in conjunction with quantum states of light, focusing on strong molecule-light coupling effects. They proposed quantum femtosecond Raman spectroscopy using entangled photons, demonstrating high time and frequency scales beyond the Heisenberg limit. Moreover, they developed a microscopic theory for the multidimensional spectroscopy of molecular polaritons, clarifying the role of dark states. In the field of statistical mechanics, Professor Zhang and his team developed the quantum theory of the nonequilibrium Bose condensation and introduced the topological graph theory into quantum physics, solving the problems of describing the nonequilibrium phase transitions and the stability of quantum entanglement.

The “National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars” was open for applications from young scientists in Hong Kong and Macao starting in 2024, aiming to cultivate exceptional academic leaders who can enter the forefront of global science and technology. The “Excellent Young Scientists Fund”, which has been open to researchers from Hong Kong and Macao since 2019, supports young scholars who have achieved notable results in basic research.

The “Young Scientists Fund”, which has accepted applications from Hong Kong scholars since 2022, nurtures young scholars’ ability to undertake innovative projects independently. Twenty-one CityUHK scholars have been awarded the “Young Scientists Fund” to date. They are (in alphabetical order of their School and Departments) Professor Jiao Dengwu and Professor Yin Xianfei, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering; Professor Fu Bing and Dr Hou Chaojian, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Professor Chen Lingxi and Dr Wu Yandi, Department of Biomedical Sciences; Professor Su Wen, Department of Biostatistics; Professor Xu Jijian, Department of Chemistry; Professor Dong Minjing, Department of Computer Science; Professor Wu Gengbo, Department of Electrical Engineering; Professor He Jingyu, Department of Management Sciences; Professor Li Nan and Dr Zhu Feng, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Professor Zhao Lina, Department of Mathematics; Professor Duan Penghao, Department of Mechanical Engineering; Dr Xu Yijun, Department of Neuroscience; Professor Zhang Ge, Department of Physics; Professor Liu Cheng, Department of Systems Engineering; Professor Jungeun Chu and Professor Qin Yiming, School of Energy and Environment; and Dr Liu Mengyang, State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution.

Seven CityUHK projects were each awarded from RMB400,000 to RMB530,000 in General Programme funding. The awarded scholars are Professor Cui Liyuan, Department of Economics and Finance; Professor Kwok Chun-kit, Department of Chemistry; Professor Tsang Sai-wing and Professor Zhang Qichun, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Professor Sunny Wang Xin and Professor Zhang Zhedong, Department of Physics; and Professor Wu Wei, School of Energy and Environment.

Among the CityUHK projects funded by the NSFC this year, 14 projects were submitted through the CityUHK Shenzhen Research Institute. The institute serves as an extension of CityUHK's research and development efforts in mainland China, bearing the mission of transforming CityUHK's technological achievements to the mainland.

Learn more about the funded projects here.