Associate Vice President (Research and Innovation)

Zuankai Wang is the Associate Vice President (Research and Innovation), Kuok Group Professor in Nature-Inspired Engineering, Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Director of Research Center for Nature-Inspired Science and Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

Professor Wang received his BSc from Jilin University, his MSc from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, and his PhD from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before joining PolyU, Prof. Wang was a Chair Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and was the Associate Dean in the College of Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong. He is the Executive Editor-in-Chief of Droplet (Wiley).

Professor Wang is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the International Society of Bionic Engineering, a Highly Cited Researcher as recognized by Clarivate (2022, 2023), and Changjiang Chair Professor by the Ministry of Education of China. His work has been recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records and his innovations have won the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury and Gold Medal. He has received many awards including the Nukiyama Memorial Award (2024), Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2023 (Engineering and Technology),  Croucher Senior Research Fellowship (2023), BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize (2022), Green Tech Award (2021), Xplorer Prize (2020), Hall of Fame (Advanced Engineering Materials) (2019), 35th World Cultural Council Special Recognition Award (2018), President's Lectureship (2018 and 2020), Outstanding Research Award (Senior) (2017), President's Award at CityU (2016 and 2017), Outstanding Youth Award conferred by ISBE (2016), OSA Young Scientist Award (2016), Chinese Government Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad Award (2007), and Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Silver Award (2007). The Ph.D. students he supervised have won several prestigious awards including MRS Graduate Student Gold Award (2016) and Silver Award (2015 and 2021), Hiwin Doctoral Dissertation Award (2016, 2019 and 2021), and Hong Kong Young Scientist Award (2015, 2019 and 2022).