As one of the first ten joint laboratories in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Processes and Control unveiled its plaque on 19 December 2019 in Guangzhou. The joint laboratory was a venture led by the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in collaboration with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental Science and Technology, with Prof. Ping’an PENG (Professor of GIG and CAS Academician) and Prof. Xiangdong LI (Chair Professor of CEE at PolyU and Associate Dean of FCE) as the co-directors. The establishment of the joint laboratory marks the further integration of research teams and resources in the GBA, and gives a big boost to the large-scale collaborative research to address pressing environmental issues in the region, such as air quality and human health, ecological risks of emerging contaminants in estuarine and coastal environments, environmental quality in city clusters, control and remediation of soil mixed contamination, and disposal of municipal waste and sewage treatment in rural areas.

Prof. Lin Lu of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) was awarded HK$1,268,450 from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) for a 2-year trial scheme project entitled “Development and optimization of the novel transparent heat insulation nano-coating and its application on local building glazing facade.” Starting in January 2020, the project will apply Prof. Lu’s novel transparent heat insulation nano-coating for energy-saving at the Government’s Electrical and Mechanical Services Department Headquarters in Kowloon Bay.

Since 2013, Prof. Lu has collaborated with local industry on nano-coating development, receiving 1 mainland patent, 1 US patent, the TechConnect 2017 Global Innovation Award, and a certificate of merit in the 2017 Hong Kong Green Innovations Award for her efforts.

A third-year undergraduate from the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), Miss Siyan Wang, has been awarded the President Emeritus Professor Poon Chung-kwong Scholarship 2019/20 of HK$20,000 for her outstanding academic achievement and active involvement in extra-curricular activities. She participated in an engineering summer programme in Cambridge in 2019 and volunteered to be a group leader for the International Wildlife Conservation Programme at Khorat Zoo in Thailand in 2018. Self-motivated and hard-working, Miss Wang is also the recipient of the Commercial Radio 50th Anniversary Scholarship and a BSE Scholarship for mainland Chinese student.