Congratulations to Prof. Zijian Zheng, who was recently conferred the prestigious title of 'RGC Senior Research Fellow' under the RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme. The Research Grants Council (RGC) held an award presentation ceremony in November to honour academics from University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded universities for their outstanding research achievements and significant contribution to the higher education sector.
Prof. Zheng’s research in permeable superelastic conductive material is applied in wearable electronic devices. Similar products in the past 20 years have neglected the importance of breathability and cannot be worn for a long period of time. The liquid-metal fibre mat that Prof Zheng’s team is developing is a major breakthrough with the use of high-permeability material and provides a better hand felt. These advantages allow this technology to be more widely and effectively applied in the professional medical fields such as for health and sports activity monitoring, soft robots, and even artificial eyes.
Prof. Zheng is very honoured to receive the title and grateful to the RGC for launching his five-year project, which gave him sufficient time and funding to carry out high-potential and high-risk innovative research. With the funds provided by the project, he is able to hire a number of postdoctoral fellows or graduate students of different majors to exchange ideas and learn from each other. As a result, they gain experience and perspective of different fields, and the project helps to cultivate new research talents at the local level.
About the RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS)/ RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS)
The RGC grants more than HK$100 million in research funding to 20 university professors and associate professors through two research scholarship programmes each year. The RGC Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) and RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS) aim to provide sustained support and relief from teaching and administrative duties to exceptionally outstanding researchers at the Associate Professor rank (or full Professor rank) at UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong, with a view to facilitating their full dedication to research and development and helping universities attract and retain research talent.
