Two CUHK Scholars Selected as 2022 New Cornerstone Investigators
The New Cornerstone Investigator Program established by Tencent announced the first batch of New Cornerstone Investigators. A total of 58 outstanding scientists from across the country were selected. Two out of the three Hong Kong scholars to receive the honour are from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK): Professor He Xuhua from the Department of Mathematics and Professor Liu Renbao from the Department of Physics. They will each receive up to RMB25 million to conduct basic research for five years.
As a pure mathematics scholar, Professor He Xuhua has research interests including algebraic groups, representation theory and arithmetic geometry, and was awarded the Morningside Gold Medal of Mathematics in 2013, Xplorer Prize (Mathematics and Physics) in 2020 and the 2022 AMS Chevalley Prize in Lie Theory by the American Mathematical Society.
Professor Liu Renbao, Professor in CUHK’s Department of Physics, shows research interests in quantum physics, quantum optics, quantum information science and technology, and nonlinear optics. He has been awarded the Huang Kun Prize and the Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, and is a Fellow of Optica and an Outstanding Fellow of the Faculty of Science at CUHK. The New Cornerstone Investigator grant will support Professor Liu to establish a theory of quantum many-body lasers.
The New Cornerstone Investigator Program is an independent, nonprofit funding initiative for basic research that focuses on original innovation and encourages free exploration. In 2022, Tencent pledged to provide RMB10 billion over 10 years to establish the New Cornerstone Investigator Program and facilitate exceptional scientists to devote themselves to basic research in a stable, long-term manner, realizing original innovations from 0 to 1.
CUHK Scholar Jointly Awarded 1st BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize in AI and Robotics
Dr Danny Chan Tat-Ming, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has received the first BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize (STIP) in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. He and the other winner of the prize, Professor Liu Hongbin, Executive Deputy Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) at the Hong Kong Institute of Science & Innovation-Chinese Academy of Sciences (HKISI-CAS), and Professor at the Institute of Automation, CAS, jointly developed MicroNeuro, a flexible endoscopic robot for minimally invasive brain surgery. The robot successfully carried out the first cadaver experiment with it in Hong Kong proving the successful completion of all the required surgical steps by robot under minimally invasive conditions.
Using MicroNeuro, neurosurgeons can perform surgery safely and precisely. It has addressed the surgical difficulties of reaching deep brain lesions through a single linear trajectory, and surgical manipulation in a small space under the minimally invasive paradigm. The robot tip can achieve precision control at a sub-millimetre level, while avoiding brain tissue damage to the greatest extent possible.
Minimally invasive surgery is becoming the standard of care and patient preference. MicroNeuro opens up a new path for the use of robots in neurosurgery. This makes Hong Kong an international leader in robotic neurosurgery research and demonstrates the city’s important role in the world of both medical robot research and clinical research for neurosurgery.
CUHK Rural Library Project Wins at the Oscars of Architecture – the World Architecture Festival 2022
The Pingtan Children’s Library, designed and built by Professor Peter W. Ferretto of School of Architecture of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and his team Condition_Lab, has received the World Interior of the Year Award and the Best Use of Natural Light Prize at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF), often referred to as the Oscars of architecture.
Opened in late 2021 and located in the Dong Minority village of Pingtan, Hunan Province, the Library sits within a primary school courtyard serving more than 400 local children. This small structure, with three storeys high and an area of approximately 180 square metres, is entirely built from timber. The Library follows the traditional Dong house, with a tiled pitch roof, and a mortise and tenon timber construction system of interlocking columns and beams. Rather than a building with floors and rooms, it consists of two interwoven spiral staircases, a double helix that becomes both the vertical circulation and a place where kids read, play and explore.
Professor Ferretto said, “The building was built by local villagers using traditional Dong carpentry skills, with a single donation from the Chan Cheung Mun Chung Charitable Fund of HK$600,000 covering the entire sum of its construction costs. This shows that social impact does not require huge financial investments, and good design is not limited to high-end projects. Architecture must have a purpose.”
WAF judges applauded the “deep level of personal engagement and local traditions of crafts and construction” of the project, acknowledging it to be a building “made for children” with scale and components created with the children in mind. They praised Condition_Lab for setting out to “realise a building with the community, for the community”.
The project has previously won the Grand Award at the DFA Design for Asia Awards 2022, as well as a Highly Commended Award at the Dezeen Awards 2022 in the Cultural Building category.