Prof. L. Q. “Rick” Wang received his PhD from University of Alberta (UA; Canada), and his MEng and BEng from Shandong University (SDU; China). He joined Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in December 2022 as Chair Professor of Thermal-Fluid and Energy Engineering. Prior to this, he was Chair Professor of Thermal-Fluid Sciences and Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Programme at the University of Hong Kong. In addition to 11 scholarly monographs/books, five book chapters, 80+ plenary/keynote lectures at international conferences, and over 180 invited lectures in universities/industries/organizations, Prof. Wang has published 260+ papers in various prestigious journals including Science, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Chemical Reviews, Progress in Materials Science, Physics Reports, and Materials Today, many of which have been widely used by researchers all over the world. Prof. Wang has also filed 40+ patents and software copyrights, and developed, with an international team consisting of about 100 scientists and engineers, a state-of-the-art thermal control system for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station that ensures AMS and all its sub-detectors working at their designed temperatures ±1℃ for an environment temperature variation from -40℃ to 60℃ every 90 minutes. His work has been widely featured by local, national, and international media, journals, and magazines, and received recognition through a number of awards, including the 2021 Gold Medal of International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, the 2018 TechConnect Global Innovation Award, the 2018 Silver Medal of International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, and the 2017 OSA Innovation Award, among others.

Prof. Wang’s current research centres on the nature-inspired and microfluidics-enabled engineering, joining biotechnology, energy technology, information technology and nano-/micro-technology. His work takes full advantage of nature-inspired structures, functions and mechanisms, and capabilities of microfluidics in terms of scalability and precise handling of small fluid volumes to develop innovative tools, and smart/functional materials via precisely engineering their micro-/nanostructures. Examples of innovative technologies and materials his team has developed include artificial blood vessels, bio-printing inks, chemoembolization microparticles, colloidosomes for smart drug-delivery, contamination-free fluidic processors, liquid-repellent materials, micro-actuators/motors/robots/sensors, multifunctional microfibers, scald-proof coatings, smart non-wetting liquid grippers, super anti-pathogen coatings, and super thermal conductors.