Prof. CUI Zhanfeng, Donald Pollock Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Oxford and Founding Director of the Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research, delivered the 18th PAIR Distinguished Lecture titled “Crosswalk between Engineering, Biology and Medicine” on 23 April 2024. The lecture attracted about 100 participants in person and drew an online viewing audience of over 11,200 from different countries and regions to watch the live broadcast on multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, Weibo and Bilibili.
The lecture commenced with a welcome speech and speaker introduction by Prof. CHEN Qingyan, Director of PAIR. Prof. Cui then described his scientific journey, reminiscing about the old days when he moved abroad to launch an academic career after graduating in China. He eventually became a highly successful scientist. Next, Prof. Cui explained the importance of interdisciplinary research and shared how the combination of medical science and engineering enables the development of health technologies such as imaging, keyhole surgery, in vitro diagnostics and in vitro fertilisation. Prof. Cui emphasised that scientists aim to “discover” and find out “how a thing happens”, whereas engineers “create” and “make things happen”. He then gave some advice for excelling in interdisciplinary research and described some innovations in microbioreactors and point-of-care testing developed by his team. These innovations have achieved great success in research commercialisation and have made significant contributions to drug discovery and public health. To conclude, Prof. Cui shared that scientific success is based on many factors, including the research team, facilities, timing, and luck. He encouraged the next generation of engineers and scientists to consider a career in biomedical engineering—an exciting and rewarding domain.
