Dr Wallace Lai
Dr Charles Wong
Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) is pleased that Ir Dr Wallace Lai and Dr Charles Wong have been promoted from Assistant Professors to Associate Professors in July 2018.
Dr Lai is the leader of BSc programme in LSGI, a visiting scientist of the Federal Institute of Material Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin, Germany, and a technical assessor of the Hong Kong Accreditation Service of the government of Hong Kong. Trained as an engineer and with six years of practical experience in contracting and consulting, he has been teaching, researching and promoting the rationale ‘Image before Diagnosis,’ from medical imaging of human bodies to a city’s man-made structures, in particular underground utilities. He uses a range of electromagnetic geophysical and nondestructive imaging methods, in particular ground penetrating radar and infrared thermography, and develops methodology, algorithms and inverse models. In his last six years at LSGI, he has established the first underground utility survey lab in the world, hosted the 16th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar in Hong Kong and was selected by the University Grants Committee as a finalist of its teaching award 2017 (early career). He will continue to embed the rationale of ‘Image before Diagnosis’ in his teaching, research and service to the community.
Dr Wong received both his PhD and MPhil in Remote Sensing and GIS in 2009 and 2005 respectively from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He started his career at PolyU as an Assistant Professor in 2012 and became Associate Professor in 2018. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center of the University of Maryland in College Park from 2006 to 2007. He received the Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching (Team Award) in 2014/15 and 2016/17; and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Funding in 2016. He has broad research interests related to the use of remote sensing in urban heat island effect, urban environmental quality, landslides, vegetation and ecosystems, spectral mixture analysis, aerosol retrieval and monitoring. He is the project leader of
two inter-institutional projects, namely the Jockey Club Smart City Tree Management Project, and Augmenting Physical Learning Spaces with Location-based Services using iBeacon Technology for Engaging Learning Experiences, with a funding of HK$32,280,000 and HK$12,321,533 respectively.
Congratulations to Dr Lai and Dr Wong!
