Vice President (Knowledge Transfer)

Professor Zijian Zheng is Vice President (Knowledge Transfer), Chair Professor of Soft Materials and Devices, and Director of the PolyU–Daya Bay Technology and Innovation Research Institute at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He is responsible for steering the planning and implementation of the University’s strategic development in translational research, knowledge transfer, technology commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and stakeholder engagement.

Professor Zheng received his Bachelor’s degree in Polymer Materials and Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2003, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2007. He joined PolyU as an Assistant Professor in 2009 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013 and Chair Professor in 2023.

A leading scholar in manufacturing technology and materials science, Professor Zheng was awarded the Second-Class Award of the 2025 Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Natural Sciences and Engineering Technology) by the Ministry of Education. He has been named in the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list by Clarivate Analytics and has also been ranked among the World’s Top 2% Most-cited Scientists by Stanford University. He has published over 270 papers in top international journals, including Science, Nature, and Nature Materials, and holds more than 50 filed and granted patents.

Professor Zheng brings substantial management experience in knowledge transfer and innovation. As the founding director of the PolyU–Daya Bay Technology and Innovation Research Institute and a senior leader of the PolyU–Wenzhou Technology and Innovation Research Institute, he has played a pivotal role in building research and incubation capacities and expanding partnerships with industry and government stakeholders in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland.

Professor Zheng is also active in professional services. He is a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Founding Member of The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences, and a Founding Young Fellow of The Hong Kong Academy of Engineering.