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Home Search by - name Search by name: - expertise Last name Message from VP-RG First name Research Report 2009-10 Schools Science Engineering Business & Management Humanities & Social Science Interdisciplinary Programs Office Departments Language Center Update Your Profile The 21st century will bring forth a phenomenal transformation of the socio-economic structure of humankind. We will witness the full bloom of the knowledge-based society in which science and technology will be recognized as the engine of economic growth. Research and development will gain increased prominence among human endeavors. Through research and development, new knowledge will be generated, disseminated and utilized to benefit society at a pace previously unimagined. A research university is distinguished by the quality and accomplishments of its faculty, staff and students. It is also characterized by the leadership it demonstrates in transferring the fruits of research to impact society. HKUST, since its inception in 1991, has strived to excel and to attain world-class standing in its chosen fields of pursuit. While the University has encouraged its members to pursue any field of intellectual curiosity and challenge, it has also focused on a number of specific fields to establish core areas of impact and excellence. These include: advanced materials and manufacturing, biotechnology, e- commerce, environment, executive education, infrastructure, IC electronic packaging design, internet and information technology, logistics, microelectronics and microsystems, molecular neuroscience, nano technology, social survey studies, South China research, traditional Chinese medicine, transportation, and wireless communications. This publication highlights the research activities of HKUST faculty members. It is the University's objective to engage in the forefront of global research as well as in specific areas of relevance to Hong Kong. We hope this publication will serve as a useful reference to benchmark our progress toward this goal. Professor Joseph H W Lee Vice-President for Research & Graduate Studies Home Search by - name The 21st century will bring forth a phenomenal transformation of the socio-economic structure of humankind. We will - expertise witness the full bloom of the knowledge-based society in which science and technology will be recognized as the Message from engine of economic growth. Research and development will gain increased prominence among human endeavors. VP-RG Through research and development, new knowledge will be generated, disseminated and utilized to benefit society at a pace previously unimagined. Research Report 2009-10 A research university is distinguished by the quality and accomplishments of its faculty, staff and students. It is also characterized by the leadership it demonstrates in transferring the fruits of research to impact society. HKUST, since its Schools inception in 1991, has strived to excel and to attain world-class standing in its chosen fields of pursuit. Science Engineering While the University has encouraged its members to pursue any field of intellectual curiosity and challenge, it has also Business & focused on a number of specific fields to establish core areas of impact and excellence. These include: advanced Management Humanities & materials and manufacturing, biotechnology, e-commerce, environment, executive education, infrastructure, IC Social Science electronic packaging design, internet and information technology, logistics, microelectronics and microsystems, Interdisciplinary molecular neuroscience, nano technology, social survey studies, South China research, traditional Chinese medicine, Programs Office transportation, and wireless communications. This publication highlights the research activities of HKUST faculty members. It is the University's objective to engage Departments in the forefront of global research as well as in specific areas of relevance to Hong Kong. We hope this publication will Language Center serve as a useful reference to benchmark our progress toward this goal. Update Your Professor Joseph H W Lee Profile Vice-President for Research & Graduate Studies Report One - Overview THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ANNUAL REPORT ON RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 2009-10 1. YEAR IN REVIEW HKUST continues to mature as a research-intensive university. One way of illustrating this statement is by reference to the global rankings of universities in the international media. In particular, HKUST has been consistently ranked among the top 100 universities in the world in all its fields of intellectual endeavour, i.e. in science, bioscience, engineering (or technology), business and management, and humanities and social science for the past four years by the Times Higher Education Supplement. Most notably, HKUST was ranked 6th in Asia, 40th globally and 20th in the world for engineering and technology. Our research mission, drawn from the Laws of Hong Kong by which HKUST was established, remains to focus on human resource development with an emphasis on postgraduate education, to maintain excellence across our chosen field of endeavour, and to contribute to the economic and social development of Hong Kong. Our strategy is to attract the best faculty and students, to expect and reward their best performance in research, to assist economic and social development through knowledge transfer, and to stimulate entrepreneurship. HKUST has achieved much. It has helped to redefine the academic and R&D culture of Hong Kong. It has grown from a vision to become a dynamo for change and a catalyst in Hong Kong’s transition to a knowledge-based society. In just 19 short years, it has found recognition on the world stage of research universities. Scholarship, research and its development and application are central to the mission and strategy of HKUST. The selection of research highlights presented below covers the spectrum from the most basic research to commercialization and business development. They demonstrate that HKUST is building on its achievements as a world-class research university with regional benefits and impact. Research & Scholarship HKUST researchers continue to make substantial contributions at the forefront of their disciplines in both basic and applied research. This is exemplified by a host of publications in top-tier journals. • Prof. Nancy Ip’s laboratory has made a ground-breaking discovery by identifying a signaling protein that is essential for proper motor function. Using multiple approaches, including biochemical, electrophysiological, electron microscopy and behavioral studies, the research team has demonstrated that mice lacking the Rho GTPase regulator, ephexin1, exhibit muscle weakness and have severe defects in the maturation of the neuromuscular junction, a specialized connection between motor neurons and muscle 1 Report One - Overview fiber. These exciting findings by Ip's team provide us with a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying specific neuromuscular disorders, and will be invaluable in the design of novel therapeautic agents. Their study was published in the January 2010 issue of Neuron, one of the most prestigious journals in neuroscience. • Prof. Mingjie Zhang, Department of Biochemistry, and his team of researchers have made a breakthrough discovery on how motor proteins like myosin IV behave. As the myosin IV protein is essential to the well-being of cells in general and its mutation is known to cause hereditary blindness and deafness as well as cancer, this discovery is expected to have far reaching and fundamental impact on medical science. This ground- breaking study by Prof. Zhang and his team was published in the 7 August 2009 issue of Cell, one of the most prestigious journals in life science. • HKUST will lead a Hong Kong team to take part in the largest ever International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) to carry forward the war on cancer. The Consortium will decode genomes from 25,000 cancer samples related to 50 types and subtypes of cancer. Comprising 200 members from 12 countries and territories, the Consortium has published an article in Nature in April 2010 about the international network of cancer genome projects. The data released can be used immediately by researchers who are working on better ways of preventing, detecting, diagnosing and treating cancer. Prof. Hannah H. Xue of Biochemistry and Prof. Matthew Yuen, Acting Vice-President for Research and Development, will take part in the Consortium. • The UST optics group led by Profs. M. Loy, G. K. L. Wong and Shengwang Du, Department of Physics, has for the first time, separated the optical precursor from the delayed main field using a square laser pulse passing through a dense laser-cooled atomic ensemble. Their result supports the view that the information velocity does not violate the Einstein Causality. The result was published in Physical Review Letter 103, 093602 (2009) and was listed as an Editor's Suggestion. • In collaboration with Prof. P. A. Lee's group from MIT, Prof. T. K. Ng's group in the Department of Physics, has carried out an analysis on the Raman signature of spin S=1/2 spin-liquid state. They have corrected an earlier error in the seminal work by Shastry and Shraiman and obtained new results for the Kagome system. Their findings were published in Physical Review B81, 024414 (2010) and was listed as an Editors' Suggestion. • Prof. Yongli M, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, together with researchers from the Arizona

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