News & Stories

Prof. LAW Kam-Tuen, Chair Professor of the Department of Physics and the Director of Research Office at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has been named a "New Cornerstone Investigator" by the Tencent-funded New Cornerstone Science Foundation. The prestigious award will provide up to RMB 15 million over five years to support his research efforts in quantum physics.Among 35 distinguished scientists selected this year from across the nation, Prof. Law is the sole honoree from Hong Kong, underscoring HKUST’s leading role in fundamental scientific research.

A research team, led by Prof. XU Qin from the Department of Physics (PHYS) and Prof. HU Wenqi from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has developed soft composite systems with highly programmable, asymmetric mechanical responses. By integrating “shear-jamming transitions” into compliant polymeric solids, this innovative work enhances key material functionalities essential for engineering mechano-intelligent systems— a major step toward the development of next-generation smart materials and devices.  

Physics unlocks many of the universe’s enigmas, thanks to the relentless dedication of many great minds. Among them is Prof. DAI Xi, the Dr William M W Mong Professor of Nanoscience and Chair Professor of Physics at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His theoretical work in condensed matter physics and topological materials research has added fresh perspectives to modern physics, earning him the prestigious 2025 Future Science Prize—widely regarded as China’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

Prof. GUO Yike, Provost and Chair Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has been elected as an International Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the Information and Electronics Engineering Division. The CAE is the nation's highest academic institution in engineering sciences and technology, and membership is considered as the highest lifelong academic honor in the field.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is pleased to announce that 12 of its scholars have been named to Clarivate Analytics' Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list. This achievement underscores the University's internationally recognized research and academic excellence and highlights its contributions to socioeconomic development and technological advancement across various fields.This year, 6,868 scholars from 60 countries and regions have been named as Highly Cited Researchers. They were selected for their exceptional performance, which is demonstrated by the production of multiple highly cited papers. These papers rank in the top 1% by citations for their fields and publication year in the Web of Science over the past 11 years.The HKUST scholars featured in the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list are as follows (ordered alphabetically by surname): 

Membrane proteins are crucial for numerous biological processes and serve as important drug targets. For decades, scientists have relied on detergents to extract membrane proteins from cell membranes for structural studies. While detergent-based approaches have significantly advanced our understanding of membrane protein structures, they present certain limitations, such as resource-intensive detergent screening and the absence of native membrane lipids, which can hinder investigations into lipid-mediated regulation. To address these challenges, a research team led by Prof. DANG Shangyu from the Division of Life Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a novel vesicle-based method that preserves the native lipid environment of membrane proteins, which can advance structural and functional studies.

A research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), led by Professors Gan Jianping (Department of Ocean Science) and Professor Yang Can (Department of Mathematics), has developed a novel AI-powered tool named STIMP for diagnosing coastal ocean productivity and ecosystem health. STIMP introduces a novel paradigm that imputes missing data and then predicts Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations across large spatiotemporal scales. In tests across four representative global coastal regions, STIMP significantly outperformed existing geoscience tools, reducing the mean absolute error (MAE) for imputation by up to 81.39% and for prediction by 58.99%. Accurate Chl-a prediction aids in early detection of harmful algal blooms, ecosystem protection, and provides data-driven insights for evidence-based policy-making.

A research team led by Prof. PAN Ding, Associate Professor from the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, and Dr. LI Shuo-Hui, Research Assistant Professor from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has developed a novel direct sampling method based on deep generative models. This method enables efficient sampling of the Boltzmann distribution across a continuous temperature range. The findings have been published in Physical Review Letters*.