HKUST JOCKEY CLUB INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY Contents 1 Words from the Director 2 IAS Chatroom Exploring the Universe through a Discovery with Neutrinos - A Dialogue between Prof Henry Tye and Prof Kam-Biu Luk on High Energy Physics 6 Knowledge Corner Fitness Landscape: A Computational Approach to Combatting Diseases 8 IAS Chatroom Think Macro, Act Micro - A Chat with Prof Rachel Ngai on Economics, Research and Life 12 IAS Scenery Greeting the Dawn 14 IAS Community Nobel Laureate Shed Light on Global Economy 14 Nexus of Great Minds 15 IAS Academicians Participate in ASHK Establishment 16 An Honor of Two Cities 17 IAS Visiting Professor Receives 2015 Materials Theory Award 18 19 Event Highlights 27 Forthcoming Events 28 Call for Proposals Words from the Director His team's groundbreaking discovery of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation has furthered humanity's understanding of the origin of the universe. The good news does not end here. Prof Kam-Biu Lu k, our Senior Visiting Fellow and a member of our fundamental physics research team, spent the past Fall term here. He was a leader of the Daya Bay research team which received the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physi cs for their investigations on neutrino oscillation. In the same month, Sir John Pendry, our Visiting Professor, was awarded an HKUST honorary doctorate degree for his distinguished accomplishments in the academia. As scientists and scholars endeavor to unlock the secrets of our world, so does IAS strive to stimulate the development 1 and exchange of their knowledge and ideas. 2016 marks the 10h anniversary of IAS. It was founded in 2006 with an inaugural lecture by Prof Stephen Hawking and Prof Paul Chu as the Founding Director. Since then, the IAS community has grown substantially over the years. Today, we host about 50 fellows of all ranks and a similar number of prominent scholars with IAS visiting appointments. Hundreds of researchers from around the world come here for conferences, workshops, programs, lectures and collaborations every year. The agreement recently signed with Gordon Research Conferences to hold up to eight conferences each summer marks another milestone for IAS. It would not have been attainable were it not for the staunch support from the University and our faculty. We are also grateful for Croucher Foundation's and K. C. Wong Education Foundation's generosity, which has contributed to our stride. The success of all these activities is also only possible with a strong and dedicated team of staff. We are happy to have $herring Ng as IAS's new Head, Administration and Development to lead the team. Of course, your continuous support is indispensable for making IAS a world class intellectual hub. Don't hesitate to let us know if you have any suggestions or insights on our path to research excellence. Read on to learn more about what the community and we have achieved in the past season. Henry Tye Director HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study Feb 2016 IAS Chatroom Exploring the Universe through a Discovery with Neutrinos Kam-Biu, I am very happy that you have been in at HKUST and other folks outside the university. Hong Kong for the past five months. We have had At the beginning of this millennium, I was a member many discussions about neutrino physics and of the KamLAND experiment (the neutrino • co/liders and we have benefited a great deal from experiment using the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator your presence. We all know that the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment that you have been Antineutrino Detector at the Kamioka Observatory leading for more than 10 years is a major in Japan). Toward the end of 2001, my Japanese accomplishment in neutrino physics. Could you colleagues invited me to join what is now called the share with us how you initiated the project and the T2K experiment (another neutrino oscillation* vision of the experiment? experiment using the Super-Kamiokande detector and a neutrino beam sent from Takai to Kamioka in Thanks for hosting my visit here at IAS, Henry. I have Japan). Because of this invitation, we formed a really enjoyed the visit. In particular, having so many outstanding staff working group at Berkeley to look into various • supporting the neutrino projects. In 2003, KamLAND announced Institute is a big plus. the first discovery of reactor anti-neutrino I have also enjoyed disappearance, which inspired me to further explore talking with the the neutrino oscillation parameters. We believed young researchers that the neutrino mixing angle, 813, should be Prof Kam-Biu Luk, IAS Senior Visiting Fellow 1976 Graduated with a BSc in Physics from the University of Hong Kong 1983 Obtained his PhD from Rutgers University 1984 Started postdoctoral research at the University of Washington 1986 Received an R.R. Wilson Fellowship from Fermilab 1989 Joined the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a faculty member 2002 Initiated the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment 2014 Awarded the 2014 WK.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics by the American Physical Society 2015 Won the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics as the co-leader of the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment *Neutrino oscillation is how one type of neutrino morphs into another type and back. Feb 2016 IAS Chotroom became interested and was willing to collaborate as an equal partner. The multinational collaboration was finally shaped with researchers from mainland China, the US, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, and the Czech Republic getting involved. The experiment began data taking with six detectors on the Christmas Eve of 2011. By early 2012, after we had collected the first batch of data, we found to our great surprise that 813 is indeed smaller than the two other mixing angles, but is still much bigger than we had anticipated. This discovery completely The Daya Bay Collaboration team is co-led by Prof Luk (front row, 'l" changed our direction on neutrino oscillation. With from left) and Prof Yifang Wang from /HEP (front row, 8'" from left). a non-zero value, we can now use reactors to measure the neutrino mass hierarchy, an important smaller than the other two angles and could be element for understanding other neutrino zero. Knowing the value of 813 is critical for defining properties such as neutrinoless double beta-decays the direction of the search for charge-parity and the detail of supernova explosion, and we can violation (CP violation) in neutrino oscillation. This study the charge-conjugation parity symmetry of was so important that I started to think of initiating neutrino oscillation in the future. The current goal a project on 813 measurement. of the Daya Bay experiment is to push the precision Regarding the Daya Bay experiment, the idea was of 813 to the limit. We are trying our best to provide conceived over the Christmas in 2002. Because the the best measurement in the world. experiment would involve nuclear power reactors, I looked at all of the reactors worldwide and eventually narrowed the choice down to a few places, preferably the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant. With the help of my friends, Prof Kwong Sang Prof Henry Tye Cheng and Prof John Leung from the Department of Physics at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), I managed to get some attention from the China Light and Power Company Limited regarding the possibility of setting up the experiment at Daya Bay. However, due to SARS, the first serious discussion with the Hong Kong colleagues about the proposal in person was delayed until July 2003. In November 2003, we held the first meeting at HKU with Chinese colleagues from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions, which led to the birth of the collaboration and the experiment. By a stroke of luck, the US Department of Energy also 3 Feb 2016 IAS Chatroom That's a great story! So the team will continue I think that is a very natural outcome because the measuring 813, and we look forward to hearing current Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPC) • more good news. Apart from the mass hierarchy • cannot last forever. To continue the research, China problem, CP violation is another remaining needs to move forward with a new machine. My question in neutrino observation. We know that concern is more about the global coordination the US and Japan are each launching related between countries. As most countries have already experiments. Which experiment do you think will been involved in other international programs, be the most promising in obtaining relevant I think they will try to be neutral about China's. information? Our Chinese colleagues will have to push the At this stage, the experiment in the US, the Deep project by themselves until there is a better idea Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) about collaboration. operated by Sanford Underground Research Facility As an international city with excellent infrastructure, • (SURF), seems to have the best chance to make Hong Kong could serve as a lively hub for research advancements in this area. Yet, the Japanese activities in high energy physics. Obviously, the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment (Hyper-K) may be programs and workshops organized by IAS provide able to get ahead of DUNE in a few years. The a good platform for bringing theorists, future of Hyper-K may depend on Japan's decision experimentalists and accelerator physicists together on whether to host the International Linear Collider to interact. Should the Chinese future collider be (ILC) or not. I can't tell for sure. However, if we look located close to Hong Kong, since there is already a at the scientific potential of the experiments, I think highway and a high-speed train line running in the DUNE is on pretty good ground.