Fall 2020 > IAS Community
IAS Senior Fellows Receive Prestigious Awards and Elected to National Academies
Prof. LAU Kei May, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, HKUST, Chair Professor in Microelectronics Thrust, Functional Hub, HKUST (Guangzhou), and IAS Senior Fellow, becomes the first female winner of the J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics awarded by the Institution of Engineering and Technology for her fundamental work in compound semiconductor materials and device physics.
Lau has also been named the recipient of the 2020 Nick Holonyak Jr. Award from the Optical Society for her contributions to “hetero-epitaxy of compound semiconductors on silicon for future integrated lasers and advancing the field of light-emitting diode microdisplays.” She is only the second female scientist to receive this award since its establishment in 1997.
Prof. Irene LO, Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and IAS Senior Fellow, received a Natural Science Award (Second Class) in the 2019 Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) from the Ministry of Education of China for her research on applying iron-based magnetic materials in heavy metal pollution control. Lo’s scholarly interest lies in remediation of hazardous waste and soil, treatment of water and wastewater, and lifecycle assessment of waste treatment process and construction materials. Her academic achievements have been recognized through numerous awards. In 2017, she was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Hong Kong SAR Government in recognition of her contributions to the community.
Prof. SHENG Ping, Dr. William M W Mong Professor of Nanoscience and IAS Senior Fellow, was elected as Member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences last December, thanks to his fundamental contributions to the science of composites and soft matter, especially in the initiation and development of acoustic metamaterials leading to novel applications in noise remediation. This year, Sheng was also elected as Honorary Member and Fellow of the Physical Society of Hong Kong for his research achievements and contributions to the scientific community.
Prof. TANG Ben-Zhong, Stephen Kam Chuen Cheong Professor of Science and IAS Senior Fellow, was elected 2020 Class Fellow (Chemical Science) by the World Academy of Sciences, in recognition of his research on aggregation-induced emission (AIE). This involved his elucidation of the mechanism of the AIE phenomenon, development of new AIE molecules, and exploration of the high-tech applications of AIE materials. He was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009.
Prof. ZHAO Tianshou, Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering and Environment and IAS Senior Fellow (left), was one of two Hong Kong scholars who were elected Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences last year. He is widely recognized for his intellectual range and accomplishments in the areas of fuel cells, advanced batteries, multiscale multiphase heat and mass transport with electrochemical reactions, and computational modeling.