It is well known that air pollution is detrimental to our health, but precisely what constitutes harmful air and its levels of toxicity are still very much a mystery. To explore the joint toxicity mechanisms and contributions of key bioactive components in airborne fine particulate matters (PM_2.5) from typical urban areas of China, Prof. Xiangdong Li, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), was recently awarded RMB 15,000,000 from the NSFC Major Research Plan for a two-year (2021-2022) Integrated Project.

The newly funded project represents a timely response to the grand challenge facing China that the reduction of PM_2.5 mass concentrations does not necessarily facilitate proportional health risk reduction. Deciphering the combined health effects and joint toxicity mechanisms of key bioactive components and their contribution to regional disparities of PM_2.5 toxicities becomes one of the pressing scientific issues in China’s future paradigm of health-oriented air quality management.

In collaboration with the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and Tongji University, Prof. Li will employ advanced interdisciplinary approaches from computational chemistry and toxicology to machine learning, live cell imaging, multi-omics, and genome editing to answer the long-standing fundamental questions, and, more importantly, to provide scientific evidence and technical support for precise mitigation of high-risk bioactive components that is essential for China’s future strategies in the low-to-medium PM_2.5 pollution scenario in the future.

An info-graphic of the project

The Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) 2020/21 of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) has supported the following two academics of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) and their teams in their research projects:

In addition, a one-off CRF Covid-19 and Novel Infectious Diseases (NID) Research Funding of $4,429,517 was awarded to Dr Horace Mui of BSE for his proposal entitled “Effective Ventilation Strategies for Mitigating Infection Risks in Hospital.” This is one of the two PolyU projects that was funded by RGC to help mitigate the impact of NID on society and people's livelihood, and better equip people should another NID emerge.

Of the 5 CRF projects in different categories awarded to PolyU this year, 3 were awarded to FCE totaling HK$ 14.5 million, which accounts for 55% of the total amount awarded to PolyU.

A team of researchers from PolyU, Fudan University, Research Center of Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shandong University and Shandong Jianzhu University, found surprisingly high concentrations of bromine chloride (BrCl) and other reactive halogen gases when they measured a suite of reactive halogen gases and other chemicals in winter 2017 at a polluted rural site in Hebei province. According to Prof. Tao Wang of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), “Halogen atoms can kick start hydrocarbon oxidation that makes ozone, modify the oxidative capacity, perturb mercury recycling by oxidizing elementary mercury (Hg0) to a highly toxic form (HgII). Moreover, Cl atoms can remove methane, a climate-forcing agent. Most of the previous studies in the continental regions have focused on two Cl precursors, ClNO2 and Cl2. However, little was known on the abundance and the role of bromine compounds and other forms of photoliable halogens in the polluted continental troposphere.” The team analyzed the data with scientists from the US, Spain and France and found strong evidence that rural coal burning was a major source of the detected reactive halogens, which could boost formation of winter haze in northern China. Their findings were recently published by the National Science Review at https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa304 and was reported at EurekAlert!, ScienMag, and Phys.org.

To encourage and better prepare its academics to apply for research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) held a workshop on 25 January 2021 on strategies for writing successful proposals. After opening remarks by Prof. Xiangdong Li, Dean of FCE, the speakers below shared their respective experiences.

A total of 82 participants joined the workshop and had a fruitful discussion of application strategies for different NSFC funding schemes.

Prof. Li at the workshop

To attract outstanding students to the Postgraduate Scheme in Construction and Environment, the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) offers entry scholarships that cover tuition fees of its taught postgraduate programmes. An entry scholarship student has recently graduated with Distinction in the MSc programme in Geomatics (Geographic Information Systems). Mr King Fung Chau is pleased to share that he met many professional classmates from multidisciplinary fields when working on group projects, in addition to dedicated and patient teachers. Their insights were the most meaningful and memorable to him. He thinks that balancing study and work is exhausting for part-time students but learning should be a fun and enjoyable process. He advises students to be courageous in their thoughts and actions. He plans to use his knowledge and skills to implement practicable solutions and innovations for better cities, forging a career in urban planning.