Recently, four distinguished scholars from local tertiary institutions have been honoured with the prestigious State Science and Technology Awards presented by the State Council, and two of them are outstanding PolyU researchers.

A second-class award went to Dr Chau Kwok-wing, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, for the joint research project "Multiobjective decision making and rainfall-runoff prediction theories for complex flood control system for reservoirs" nominated by Liaoning Province.

Together with Prof. Cheng Chun-tian of Dalian University of Technology and Prof. Li Deng-feng of Dalian Naval Academy, Dr Chau has developed a sophisticated theory taking into account different factors in the prediction of rainfall and flooding, thus provided a solid foundation for the development of a reservoir flood control operation system.

Taking 60 reservoirs and four river basin floodwater forecasting systems in the Chinese mainland as models, the new flood control management system is capable of analysing and forecasting floodwater level based on the knowledge of decision-makers, historical flood control cases and real-time information. This will in turn help in the formulation of flood control proposals and in making timely decisions.

The system has been successfully applied to the flood control system centred around the Three Gorges Reservoir for flooding system planning, and the Liao River, Hun River and Tai River for real time operation of reservoirs. It has also been applied to Shuangpai Reservoir in Hunan Province, with the forecasting accuracy reaching over 90 per cent.

Another second-class honour was awarded to Prof. Wang Rui of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, for his project "Asymmetric Catalytic Syntheses and Their Applications in Polypeptide Investigations” nominated by Gansu Province. As an important tool of modern chirotechnology, “asymmetric calatytic syntheses” is a hot research topic for its potential wide applications in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Details>>