Welcome to the Faculty of Science Research Day 2021 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Every year, the Faculty organises a Research Day where researchers gather together to share ideas and experiences in advancing research and collaboration in the Faculty and CUHK. Last year we had the first virtual Research Day 2020 amidst COVID-19 pandemic shortly after I joined the Faculty as the new Dean; it gave me the first exposure of research activities of our colleagues. This year the Faculty launches the premier event of physical-virtual hybrid Research Day with the theme of “Advancing Science through Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Research and Collaboration”. Another highlight of this year’s Research Day is the “Sharing on Collaborative Research Fund (CRF)”.
Through interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborative research, our researchers strive to advance fundamental understanding and also address the global grand challenges. In CUHK 2021-2025 strategic plan, a clear and pronounced emphasis on interdisciplinary research is identified which crosses the boundaries of individual academic units. Our Faculty has also provided inputs to the university strategic plan in seven interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary areas. These areas will also be highlighted in the Faculty Strategic Plan. Our Faculty recently selected five collaborative proposals for funding with the project impact funds, and the investigators come from two or three different disciplinary units. The Faculty will continue to support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research collaboration.
For the Faculty Research Day this year, we are honoured and very pleased to have a most distinguished scientist and a Nobel Laureate, Prof. Randy Schekman from the University of California at Berkeley as the Keynote Speaker. Prof. Randy Schekman will share his insight on collaboration and openness in basic science and research publication. I will ask my colleague Prof. Liwen Jiang to introduce Prof. Schekman in a few moments. We are also pleased to have 3 presentations by leading researchers from different units, including Prof. Ronald Lok Ming Lui in mathematics, Prof. Jiang Xia in chemistry, Prof. Yilin Wu in physics. They will share their interdisciplinary research for linking their various backgrounds with biological problems.
Over the past ten years, the Faculty has successfully developed 24 Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) projects and 3 Area of Excellence (AoE) projects funded by the Research Grants Council (RGC). We hope that the Research Day will promote the discussion among faculty members for collaborative research and facilitate their application of the future RGC CRF. In this connection, the Research Day this year also features the sharing by 7 colleagues from the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Medicine, including Prof. Man Nin Chan in earth system science, Prof. Kin Fai Ho in public health and primary care, Prof. Yingying Wei in statistics, Prof. Sen Yang in physics, Prof. Jerome Ho Lam Hui in life science and Prof. Kevin Yuk Lap Yip in computer science and engineering, as well as Prof. Liwen Jiang in life science to share their experiences in CRF grant application and also how they learnt from previous submissions.
We hope the Research Day 2021 will serve as a platform for researchers to exchange ideas from recent research advances and to encourage collaborative research across different disciplines.
Yours sincerely,
Chunshan Song
Dean of Science and Wei Lun Professor of Chemistry
