Prof. Xiangdong Li, Director of PolyU’s Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) and Ko Jan Ming Professor in Sustainable Urban Development, has been appointed Acting Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) from 7 September to 31 December 2020. He will become the Faculty Dean from 1 January 2021 upon the retirement of Ir Prof. You-Lin Xu. He thanks Prof. Xu for his leadership and guidance over the last 6 years and wishes his predecessor all the best.

Prof. Li began his academic career at PolyU in 1995. He has a PhD in environmental technology from Imperial College London. His major research interests include regional pollution, urban environmental studies, and remediation of contaminated sites. He has published more than 200 papers in leading international journals, and is an author of 15 highly cited papers (top 1%) in the field of Environment/ Ecology in the Web of Science database. A past president (2011-2013) of the International Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH), he is currently an associate editor of Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T), a journal published by the American Chemical Society, and serves on the editorial board for several other international journals in related fields.

Prof. Li

7 scholars from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to support their research. Following are the details:

The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased to have two of its academics benefiting from the 2020 Excellent Young Scientists Fund, which was established by NSFC to encourage local young scientists to pursue excellence in basic research and research in cutting-edge technologies. Dr Chao Zhou of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Dr Xiaolin Zhu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) will each receive RMB1.2 million to support their respective research on unsaturated soils and problematic soils on the one hand, and remote sensing: time series image processing on the other.

Since its launch in 2019, 25 young scientists (males under 38 and females under 40 years old) from Hong Kong and Macau have been supported by the Excellent Young Scientists Fund each year. Dr Zhou joined CEE in late 2018, while Dr Zhu joined LSGI in July 2016. Both of them are assistant professors who received their PhD degrees in 2014, from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Ohio State University in the US respectively.

Dr Zhou                                  Dr Zhu

6 academics from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have been selected by the Hong Kong Scholars Programme (HKSP) 2020 to each engage a mainland scholar as a Postdoctoral Fellow in their research projects. Launched in December 2010 as a joint initiative between mainland authorities and the Society of Hong Kong Scholars, the HKSP promotes academic/ scientific exchanges and collaboration by matching outstanding mainland PhD graduates with leading academics of universities in Hong Kong, who will supervise the mainland scholars for 2 years in a research project. Following are the details:

The PolyU Postdoc Matching Fund Scheme 2020/21 has supported 11 academics in the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) to each engage a postdoc fellow (PDF) in their research for 2 years. Following are the details:

The following assistant professors have been awarded funding from the FCE Start-up Fund for New Recruits:

PolyU has developed an air-monitoring device that can identify high-risk areas for virus transmission or pollutants. The system assesses hazards in a given space and has an “airborne pathogen tracing/ dispersion” facility to simulate the spread of a virus. According to Dr Horace Mui of the Department of Building Services Engineering, airflow in a room would be analyzed after a tracer gas had been released, so the origin of the virus and pollutants would be detected. He hopes the new device can help health authorities track coronavirus dispersal and control its spread.

In addition, Dr Mui led a test of different kinds of incense using the air-monitoring device and found that cone incense released the most particulate matters, with PM10 matters of 223.17 mg/m3 and total volatile organic compound (TVOC) ranged from 583.12 to 695.73 mg/m3 after five minutes, exceeding the standard slightly. The TVOC of the natural agarwood also moderately exceeded the standard. While the results of all other samples were below the limit, eco-friendly incense outperformed other samples with PM10 matters of 21 to 35.83 mg/m3.

Dr Wong's webinar

Mr Sherif Mohamed