Chief Executive Mrs Carrie Lam visits HKU

The Chief Executive Mrs Carrie Lam visited the University of Hong Kong (HKU) today (August 2).

She was accompanied by Council Chairman Professor Arthur Li and President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Xiang Zhang for a tour of the facilities at the Faculty of Engineering, for an understanding of the University’s latest development in research.

At the Photonic Systems Research Laboratory, Professor Kevin K.M. Tsia of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering introduced to the Chief Executive the pioneering homebuilt ultrafast optical microscope system and microfluidic cytometry system, both demonstrate great potential in future medical applications, for capturing high-resolution motion pictures of the swift-flying brain signals in a living animal, visualising the inner workings of biological cells and organisms in 3D; and detecting efficiently and precisely rare cancer cells among millions of blood cells.

Professor Tong Zhang, of the Department of Civil Engineering, briefed Mrs Lam on the work of the Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Laboratory. Professor Zhang’s team has designed a new surveillance system for detecting the Covid-19 virus and its variants in sewage, under the joint monitoring scheme with the government.

Mrs Lam also met with the Directors of the five HKU State Key Laboratories and visited the state-of-the-art facilities at the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing, which serves as an incubator for nurturing innovative young scientists. She met different research teams for a demonstration of their innovative work including the Guinness World Record setting Robotic Fish; and a four-legged robot, created by the Robotic Team which can walk and jump. She encouraged students there to be patient in the course of discovery and hopes to see their subsequent achievements in innovation and technology.

Professor Xiang Zhang welcomed Mrs Lam to the University. He referred to HKU’s commitment to pursuing frontier research in critical areas and create new knowledge that will help tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges and positively impact global development. The University appreciates the government’s support in these efforts and will continue to strategically advance its research endeavours to a globally significant level and create incubation platforms for Big Ideas and exceptional breakthroughs.