PolyU honours exceptional research postgraduate alumni
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In recognition of the remarkable achievements of its PhD/MPhil alumni, PolyU is proud to announce the Outstanding Research Postgraduate Alumni Award 2023 winners. Capitalising on their research strengths and visions, the awardees manifest their innovative research aspirations, engage in the PolyU community, and contribute to societal development.
The award is organised by the Graduate School of PolyU as part of its commitment to promoting excellence in research postgraduate education. There are two award categories: the Outstanding Research Postgraduate Alumni Award and the Outstanding Research Postgraduate Early Career Alumni Award. The latter recognises those exemplary alumni who graduated from PolyU within ten years.
With rigorous selection criteria, the winners demonstrated distinctive accomplishments in academia, profession, industry, and community, and their strong leadership skills, innovative minds, and staunch support to the University. Congratulations to the awardees!
Outstanding Research Postgraduate Alumni Award
Professor Wilson Lu Weisheng
Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Building and Real Estate (2006)
Currently serving as the Head of the Department of Real Estate and Construction at The University of Hong Kong, Professor Lu is the leader of research grants worth HK$60+ million from various prestigious funding regimes. His research interests focus on two areas:
Construction informatics: building information modelling, smart construction, big data, and blockchain; and
Circular construction: management, economics, and public policies.
As the author of two books and more than 200 book chapters and journal papers, Professor Lu has been ranked as one of the Top 1% Scholar by Clarivate Analytics since 2017. He is also the Director of iLab@hku, which has made significant breakthroughs in modernising the construction industry in Hong Kong and beyond.
Outstanding Research Postgraduate Alumni Award
Dr Lawrence Poon Chi-kin
Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Mechanical Engineering (2004)
Dr Poon is the Head of Innovative Technology and CEO Advisor of Applied R&D in the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI). He leads the overall planning and development of ASTRI’s new initiatives in Smart City, Smart Mobility and PropTech R&D.
Before joining ASTRI, Dr Poon served in the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and Automotive Platforms and Application Systems (APAS) R&D Centre for over 17 years. To steer the applied research activities and commercialisation of R&D results, Dr Poon contributed to the establishment of Smart City Division of HKPC and APAS in Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area markets with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Smart Mobility, Electric Vehicles, Autonomous Driving, GeronTech and Metaverse. He has garnered numerous international awards and owns more than ten patents covering a wide range of smart city applications. Under his strong leadership, the R&D team grew from 9 staff members to 140+ scientists and researchers.
Outstanding Research Postgraduate Early Career Alumni Award
Dr Leo Wang Lei
Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (2018)
Dr Wang is a “Hundred-Talent Program” Research Fellow, Doctoral Supervisor, National Excellent Young Scholar (Overseas), and Humboldt Fellow in the College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University. His research interests include sustainable waste-to-energy technologies, recycling waste into construction materials, CO2 sequestration and mineral utilisation.
Applying research to solve real-world problems has always been Dr Wang’s priority. He developed the carbon-negative climatesmart biochar partition block, which won the Silver Medal at the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. He has been selected as the World’s Top 2% Scientist.
Dr Wang has published over 80 SCI journal papers in total (with 48 first author or corresponding author papers), including over 70 papers in the Top 10% journals, 5 Hot Papers and 20 Highly Cited Papers, and co-edited 2 books (over 5,400 citations with an H-index of 47, Scopus). He has served as an Associate Editor for Soil Use and Manag., Editorial Board for 4 SCI journals, e.g., J. Hazard. Mater., and Guest Editor for 10 SCI journals, e.g., Bioresour. Technol.
