Meet Our Distinguished Scholars

Professor HAO Jianhua is Chair Professor of Materials Physics and Devices at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking research on ferroelectric luminescence. His innovative work includes introducing ferroelectric modulation to the field of rare-earth luminescence and pioneering the concept of "Smart Phosphors." His work has been covered by many media outlets, including TVB, Chinadaily Europe, Asia Research News, ScienceDaily, Phys.org, EurekAlert (AAAS), etc.

With an impressive record of over 360 international journal papers published, Professor Hao has been featured in top-tier journals, such as Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ACS Nano, and Nano Letters. He has also been granted eight US patents and delivered more than 100 plenaries, tutorials, keynotes, and invited lectures at international conferences. Professor Hao's accomplishments have earned him various accolades, such as being listed as one of the "Most Cited Scientists" in Materials Science by Essential Science Indicators (ESI) and ranked among the World's Top 2% Scientists in an index compiled by Stanford University. Furthermore, as a project leader, he has received major research grants in recent years, including the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Key Programme Funding.

He was also elected as a Optica Fellow “For outstanding and pioneering contributions to multifunctional phosphors and photonic devices”. Recognised for his remarkable work, Professor Hao received the Hong Kong RGC Senior Research Fellowship (2021/22), Chang Jiang Scholar Chair Professorship (2018), Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Natural Science Award) by the Ministry of Education (2020), TechConnect Global Innovation Award (2018, 2021), Special Merit Award and Gold Medal with the Congratulations of Jury at the 45th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva (2017), and many more.

In addition to his research accomplishments, Professor Hao actively contributes to professional communities. He serves as an Associate Editor for the high-impact journal InfoMat (Wiley, impact factor : 22.7) and the newly launched journal InfoScience, and is a Guest Editor or Editorial Board Member for several other prestigious international journals, such as Advanced Optical Materials and Applied Physics Letters.