Asian Core Programme Lectureship Awards from Korea and Japan

Dr. Fuk-yee Kwong and Dr. Wing-yiu Yu both received the ACP Lectureship awards in The 8th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ICCEOCA-8), held in International Convention Centre in Osaka, Japan from 25 to 28 November, 2013. Based on the principle of equal partnership, this annual international programme aims to nurture close relationship among active researchers in the field of organic chemistry and related disciplines among the participating Asian countries. This conference programme offers an international research hub for leading scientists to exchange and collaborate in high-quality organic chemistry research. Moreover, this conference has become a platform for the next generation organic chemists in the East and Southeast Asian region to showcase their research accomplishment. The scope of this programme covers multiple facets of organic chemistry, including novel chemical reactions, organic synthesis, nano-chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, green chemistry, structural and material sciences, and environmental chemistry. This year, Dr. Kwong has gained the recognition from the Korean representatives with his presentation entitled "A New Series of Tunable Phosphine Ligands for Sterically Hindered Coupling: Tetra-ortho-Substituted Biaryl Synthesis from Aryl Chlorides and Aryl Trifluoroborate Salts". On the other hand, Dr. Yu's presentation on "Catalytic C-H Bond Cross Coupling Reactions for C-C and C-N Bond Formations" has attracted the recognition from the representatives of Japan. Both awardees would be invited to undertake a one-week lecture tour in Korea and Japan in 2014 respectively.

Dr. Ka-hing Wong awarded in World Inventor Award Festival 2013

Dr. Ka-hing Wong has achieved two awards from the 2nd World Inventor Award Festival 2013. The Award Ceremony was taken place earlier in Seoul of Korea on 14 Dec 2013. This year, inventors from more than 50 countries have been attracted to the event, while our Dr. Wong was awarded merits under the category of Food Order and Material Invention Order. The World Inventor Award Festival aims to serve as a platform for rewarding the world's best individuals, groups, companies and associates in various fields and businesses – relative occupations and professions dealing with creative invention, innovation, technology transfer and so on. The programme has set its goal towards discovering those who deserves to be recognized for their success and higher achievements, contributions towards society, national competitiveness and for the development of numerous industries. Congratulations to Dr. Wong on receiving the awards!

Three ABCT members bestowed in the IFT13 in Chicago

Our Dr. Man-sau Wong and Dr. Ka-sing Leung have recently received the Certified Food Scientist (CFS) credential. The presentation ceremony was held at the 2013 Annual Meeting and Food Expo of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT13) in Chicago this July. Dr. Wong and Dr. Leung are part of the CFS credential's inaugural class. The Certified Food Scientist SM (CFS) credential is a formal global certification programme administered by the International Food Science Certification Commission, which recognizes the practical, applied scientific knowledge and skills possessed by food science professionals. CFS credential holders must demonstrate their core professional competencies of being a food scientist and their ability to apply knowledge and skills in reality. On the other hand, Miss. Cheung Yi-ching, Anna, a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Jian-yong Wu, received the Graduate Student Poster Award, and won the 3rd place of the International Individual Division Competition with her presentation entitled "Optimization and kinetic modeling of polysaccharide extraction by ultrasonic disruption of a medicinal fungal mycelia in fermentation broth". The International Division Research Paper Competition was inaugurated as part of IFT's 50th Anniversary Celebration in 1989. It aims to encourage graduate students entering the International Research Paper Competition to think on global food science and technology issues and the needs of all people in the world. It also aims at promoting the diversity of opportunities and needs in a shrinking world, and recognizing the diverse and rich research skills of IFT's international members. Congratulations to Dr. MS Wong, Dr. KS Leung and Miss. Anna Cheung on receiving the honours!

Prof. Wing-tak Wong awarded the Second Class Prize in Natural Science Award

Prof. Wing-tak Wong has been awarded the Second Class Prize in Natural Science Award bestowed by the Science and Technology Development Centre under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. The presentation ceremony was taken place in the Chinese University of Hong Kong on 16 May 2013. His award-winning project is "The Development and Application of Lanthanide Luminescent Materials" (鑭系發光材料的發展與及應用) with its aims to design and synthesize a series of new lanthanide complexes and nanoparticles with long-excited wavelength, high quantum efficiency, non-toxicity and water solubility, and to investigate the relationship between the structure and photo-physical behavior and localization in vitro. There is a great demand for developing fluorescence marker with high efficiency and stability for the in vitro or in vivo imaging. Professor Wong Wing-tak said, "Lanthanide ions are considered the best substitutes for the more commonly used organic fluorophores, as lanthanide complexes exhibit long-lived luminescence lifetimes, large Stokes shifts, and sharp emission peaks." Newly established lanthanide complexes have been successfully applied for organelles specific imaging, such as cytoplasm, lysosome, endoplasmic reticulum and plasma membrane. Let us congratulate Prof. Wong again on receiving this prestigious award.

Special Prize and Gold Medal Awarded at 41st International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva

A term from our Department, led by Dr. Larry Ming-cheung Chow and Prof. Bill Tak-hang Chan, has won a Gold Medal and a Special Award from the Romanian Delegation at the 41stInternational Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. This year, the winning project was presented at a press conference hosted by Mr. Nicholas W. Yang, Executive Vice President of the University on PolyU campus on 8 May 2013. The project titled "Novel Flavonoid Dimers for Reversing Cancer Drug Resistance" has successfully designed small molecules to reverse the multidrug resistance (MDR) process extensively observed in cancer treatment. Nowadays, chemotherapy is commonly used for treating cancer while multidrug resistance (MDR) remains a major problem. Dr. Chow and Prof. Chan's team has designed small molecules to reverse this process. Membrane proteins P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and Breast Cancer Resistance Protein (BCRP) pump drugs out of cancer cells and reduce chemotherapy efficacy. The team has designed, synthesized and characterized novel diet-derived flavonoid dimers which can target P-gp and BCRP's dimeric structure. Due to the unique design of dimeric structure which can specifically bind to the pseudodimeric P-gp and BCRP, these flavonoid dimers can inhibit P-gp and BCRP, and reverse cancer drug resistance with very high potency (inhibiting BCRP at Let us congratulate Dr. Chow and Prof. Chan on receiving this award.

Dr. Fuk-Yee Kwong receiving Croucher Senior Research Fellowship Award 2013-2014

Dr. Fuk-Yee Kwong, Michael was awarded the prestigious Senior Research Fellowship by The Croucher Foundation on 21st March 2013 in recognition of his excellent scientific achievement and contribution to the international scientific community. The award was presented by Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, GBS, JP, Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR Government. The fellowship is awarded by the Foundation to local academics who have excelled in scientific research work as judged by leading international scientists invited to provide confidential reviews of candidates nominated in a competitive exercise. The value of each Senior Research Fellowship is about HK$900,000, which includes a personal grant of HK$60,000 to the recipient for research expenses, and funds to the University to recruit replacement staff to take over the recipient's duties for the period of the fellowship. Being a pioneering scientist, Dr Kwong is currently the Deputy Principal Investigator for Hong Kong's team in an on-going collaborative European Commission project – 'OrganoCATAlytic Approaches towards Easily Synthesized, Economical, and High Yielding Oseltamivir Derivatives'. This is a pharmaceutical project concerning the development of 'Tamiflu' drug derivatives using concise and modular synthetic approaches to produce inexpensive drugs for the mutual benefit of pharmaceutical community and society at large. Over the years, Dr Kwong has filed two US patents for his many breakthroughs in new catalyst design and synthetic methodology establishments, and put them to good use. Information Source from The Croucher Foundation: http://www.croucher.org.hk/2013-croucher-senior-research-fellowships

Appreciation of Research Achievement by the Committee of Science and Technology Innovation of Shenzhen

Our Dr. Man-sau Wong, Dr. Pak-ho Chan, Dr. Man-kin Wong, Dr. Chen Sheng, Dr. Li Xiaohua, and Dr. Cui Wei have been awarded the Appreciation of Research Achievement by the Committee of Science and Technology Innovation of Shenzhen (深圳市科技創新委員會). The awardees were presented the awards by our senior management during the annual gathering held at PolyU Shenzhen Base on 22 Feb 2013. With the efforts of our department and other PolyU's groups, the Shenzhen Base has gradually grown to be a major PolyU establishment in Pearl River Delta on research development, training and knowledge transfer. Up to the end of 2012, the Shenzhen Base has obtained mainland research funding of over RMB40,000,000. In addition, about 330 postgraduate students who are mainly working executives, are currently attending classes at the Training Center of the Shenzhen Base. It is hoped our Department would continue to extend our network in the Greater China and develop our research niches via the access of this advanced platform.