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Physical Science Session - "The Beauty, Tangible and Intangible Impacts of Fundamental Physical Science”
Chi Ming CHE

Convener and moderator

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Professor Che is Chair of Chemistry and Head of the Department of Chemistry, Zhou Guangzhao Professor in Natural Sciences, Director of State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry, and Director of HKU-CAS Joint Laboratory on New Materials of the University of Hong Kong. He is also a founding member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. Professor Che has made inspiring contributions in virtually all areas of Chemistry. For example, emissive long-lived excited states for energy and atom transfer reactions, reactive metal-ligand multiple bonded complexes for C-H functionalisation, sustainable catalysis for oxidative functionalisation of alkanes and alkenes, anti-cancer metal medicines for combating metastatic cancers, chemical biology of traditional Chinese medicines and phosphorescent OLED materials. He has a current H-index of 126 with over 170 Ph.D students graduated. His outstanding achievement has brought him numerous international recognitions and awards, for example, member of The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Foreign Associate (international member) of National Academy of Sciences, USA, the First Class Prize of the State Natural Science Award of China, the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize, 2007 Leader of the Year (Education/Research Category), Silver Bauhinia Star of the Hong Kong SAR Government and a number of distinguished Lectureship.

Keynote speakers and pAnElists

Kam Biu LUK
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Professor Luk is the IAS Paul C W Chu Professor, Chair Professor of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley. Professor Luk’s research area is particle physics. He is the co-leader of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment and assembled a team of multinational researchers from US, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Czech Republic and Russia. His outstanding achievements in scientific leadership and the discovery of the third kind of neutrino oscillation has earned him many honours and awards. Professor Luk was the co-recipient of the 2014 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics from the American Physical Society and the 2019 Future Science Prize in Physical Sciences. He as a leader and the Daya Bay collaborators were also awarded the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in recognition of their outstanding achievement in investigating neutrino oscillation. Professor Luk is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Divisional Coordinator of High-energy Physics of the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers.

Qikun XUE

Title of the talk: 

Getting To Know The Ghostly Neutrino

Synopsis:

Neutrino is a very shy sub-atomic particle that we know little about. Recently, several experiments have discovered an intriguing phenomenon called neutrino oscillation in which one kind of neutrino can morph into another type as it travels in space. In 2012, the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment observed a new kind of neutrino oscillation, bringing the exploration of this phenomenon to a new height. In this talk, a brief overview and prospects of neutrino oscillation will be presented.

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Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences President, Southern University of Science and Technology President, Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences Director, Guangdong - Hong Kong – Macao Greater Bay Area Quantum Science Center Professor of Physics, Tsinghua University The Future Science Prize 2016 - Physical Science Prize Laureate Professor Xue received his BSc degree from Shandong University in 1984, and Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from the Institute of Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1994. From 1994 to 1999, he worked as a Research Associate at IMR, Tohoku University, Japan and a visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, USA. He became a professor at the Institute of Physics, CAS in 1999. He was elected to The Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. Since 2005, he has been a distinguished professor at the Department of Physics, Tsinghua University. From 2010 to 2013 he was the Chair of the Department of Physics and the Dean of School of Sciences, and then the Vice President for Research of Tsinghua University from 2013 to 2020. He has been the President of Southern University of Science and Technology since 2020. He has been the Director of Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences since 2017. He was elected a Fellow of American Physical Society in 2016. He won the TWAS Prize in Physics in 2010, the Future Science Prize for Physical Sciences in 2016, State Natural Science Award (the First Prize) in 2018, The Fritz London Memorial Prize in 2020, the Outstanding Contribution Zhongguancun Award, Beijing Science and Technology Award in 2020, and the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award in 2020. His research interests include scanning tunneling microscopy/ spectroscopy, molecular beam epitaxy, low-dimensional and interface-related superconductivity, topological insulators, and quantum size effects in various low-dimensional structures. He has authored/coauthored ~500 papers with a citation of ~28,000 times. He has presented 180 plus invited/keynote/plenary talks at international meetings/conferences. Currently, he is the Associate Editors-in-Chief of National Science Review, the Editors-in-Chief of Surface Review & Letters, and on the Editorial Board of Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, AIP Advances, Surface Science Reports and Nano Letters.

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Title of the talk: 

How unconventional is the unconventional high-temperature superconductivity

Synopsis:

​Will be available soon.

Dawei MA

Professor, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry Professor, Southern University of Science and Technology Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences The Future Science Prize 2018 - Physical Science Prize Laureate Professor Ma received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), and did his postdoctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Mayo Clinic. He returned to SIOC in 1994, and was appointed as a research professor in 1995. He is presently the chairman of the scientific committee of the SIOC and a chair professor of Southern University of Science and Technology. He has received numerous scientific awards, including the Arthur C. Cope Scholars Award (2018), the Future Science Prize - Physical Sciences (2018), and the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2019).

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Title of the talk: 

Organic Synthesis: What is Next

Synopsis:

During the past decades we have witnessed great progress in organic synthesis, which has offered huge opportunities for discovering and producing various functional molecules such as therapeutic agents, dyes and electronic chemicals. This lecture will highlight the future trends in organic synthesis, including the development of more efficient and cost-effective synthetic methods, function-directed organic synthesis, automatic synthesis, AI-aided synthetic design.

Xue-Ming YANG

Acting Vice President, Southern University of Science and Technology Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences Professor Yang, Chair Professor, Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, is currently Director of Chemical Science Division, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Vice President of the Chinese Chemical Society. Professor Yang is a world-renowned scholar in physical chemistry. He was supported by the distinguished young scholars’ program of NSFC and was selected to the “Ten Thousand Talents Program” in China. His research works have been selected into “China's top 10 scientific and technological progress news" twice and "China's top 10 scientific progress" once. He has won National Natural Science Award (2nd Prize) twice, Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, Yangtze Scholar Achievement Award, Tan Kah Kee Science Award, Broida Award, Humboldt Research Award, National Innovation Competition Award, etc. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Chinese Journal of Chemical Physics and an Associate editor of the CCS Chemistry. He has led more than 20 major science and technology projects. He is the project leader for China's first free electron laser user facility - the only free electron laser facility operating in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength region in the world. Professor Yang has published over 440 research papers, including 15 in Science and one in Nature. He has trained a number of outstanding doctoral students, including seven awardees of the Special Presidential Scholarship of Chinese Academy of Sciences and one winner of Top 100 National Doctoral Dissertations in China. Education: (1)Sept. 1978 – July 1982, B.S., Physics, Zhejiang Normal University; (2)Jan. 1986 - Aug. 1991, PhD, Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; (3)Aug. 1982 - Jan. 1986, MS, Chemical Physics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Work Experience: (1)Sept. 2021 – to date, Chair Professor of SUSTech, Dean of College of Science, Acting Vice President; (2)Nov. 2017 - to date, Chair Professor of SUSTech, dean of College of Science, Chair Professor of SUSTech; (3)Apr. 2012 - Mar. 2017, Deputy Director of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; (4)Oct. 2001 - Apr. 2015, Director of State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, PRC; (5)Sept. 2001 - to date, Research Fellow of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; (6)Aug. 2000 - Dec. 2003, Tenured Research Fellow of Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Taipei; (7)Jul. 2000 - Jan.2001, Visiting Research Fellow of JILA, University of Colorado; (8)Dec. 1995 - Aug. 2000, Research Associate of Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Taipei; (9)May. 1993 - Nov. 1995, Postdoctoral Researcher of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California; (10)Sept. 1991 - Apr. 1993, Postdoctoral Researcher of Department of Chemistry, Princeton University.

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Title of the talk: 

Free Electron Laser and Its Applications in Science and Technology

Synopsis:

Since the advent of the first laser in 1960s, we have witnessed a magnificent growth of laser technologies, which had revolutionary impacts on modern science and industrial technology. It is extremely difficult to generate VUV to X-ray lasers using regular laser media. In the last two decade or so, free electron laser based on modern accelerator science has become a new frontier in this area, expanding laser science and technology into the VUV and X-ray region. Here, I will briefly introduce the free electron laser technology and its applications in science and technology.

Che Ting CHAN
Fuk Yee KWONG
Vivian WW YAM

PANELISTs

Professor Chan is Associate Vice-President for Research and Development (Research), Daniel C K Yu Professor of Science, Chair Professor of Physics, the Director of Center for Metamaterials Research, and the Director of Research Office, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and a member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. Professor Chan’s primary research interest is the theory and simulation of material properties. He is a pioneer in photonic band gap problem and photonic crystals. In recent years, he focuses on photonic and phononic crystals and metamaterials and other topics in using artificial materials to control waves and using waves to manipulate materials. Professor Chan has also served on the editorial boards of several peer review journals. Professor Chan is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and Physical Society of Hong Kong. He received the Achievement in Asia Award of the Overseas Chinese Physics Association and the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship and was a co-recipient of Brillouin Medal for his research in phononic metamaterials (2013). Professor Chan is a dedicated teacher and has received the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching at HKUST (1999).

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Professor Kwong is currently the Professor and Chairman, Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Director, Shenzhen Centre of Novel Functional Molecules, Shenzhen Municipal Key Laboratory of Chemical Synthesis of Medicinal Organic Molecules, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute. Professor Kwong is a member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. Professor Kwong has broad interests in synthetic organic chemistry and organometallics chemistry. His current focus is on design, preparation, and application of new phosphine ligands, development of new transition metal-catalysed C-H bond functionalisation for carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond formation, Organocatalysis / Cross-Dehydrogenative-Coupling Methodologies, and Enantioselective reactions. The outstanding contribution of Professor Kwong has earned him many honours and awards, such as the Faculty Exemplary Teaching Award (2021), Asian Core Program Lectureship Award (2019), the Distinguished Lectureship Award, the CSJ Asian International Symposium, the Chemical Society of Japan (2019), Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) Second-class Award in Natural Science China (2014), Rising Star Award, 41st International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (2014), and the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship (2013). Professor Kwong is also active in society. He is a member of the Committee on Science Education, Curriculum Development Council, and a panel member of Physical Science, General Research Fund and Other Funding Schemes for Individual Research of the University Grants Committee.

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Professor Yam is currently the Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor in Chemistry and Energy and the Chair Professor of Chemistry in the University of Hong Kong. She is also a Founding Member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. Professor Yam has made tremendous contributions to the areas of inorganic and organometallic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, photochemistry and solar energy research. Her team focused on researching the molecular design and synthesis of novel inorganic/organometallic complexes. Professor Yam’s achievements have earned her numerous recognitions and honours. For example, she is a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, Foreign Member of Academia Europaea, Laureate of the 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Centenary Medal and the RSC Ludwig Mond Award. More recently, she was selected as one of the three prominent scientists in energy research in the inaugural “Pioneers in Energy Research” programme by Energy & Fuels of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications in 2021 and recipient of the Josef Michl ACS Award in Photochemistry in 2022. She was also awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star, Silver Bauhinia Star and appointed Justice of Peace by the Hong Kong SAR Government to recognise her contribution to the society.

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