Over 350 scholars, researchers and professionals from different places participated in the Carbon-Strategic Catalysis International Conference cum Inauguration Ceremony of the Research Centre for Carbon-Strategic Catalysis held in late February.

The 3-day international conference focused on carbon-strategic catalysis and energy research, and gathered frontier scientists in related fields to share their advanced research and insightful opinions to promote interdisciplinary collaborations and innovations for achieving carbon neutrality.

Prof. Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU, delivered the welcome speech at the ceremony, and was joined by the Hon. Shang Hailong, Member of the Legislative Council; Mr Bryan Peng, Vice President (AI and Data Science) of the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises of the HKSAR Government; and Dr Bolong Haung, Director of the Research Centre for Carbon-Strategic Catalysis and Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology of PolyU. Topics discussed at the conference included the challenges and opportunities of energy catalysis, atomic synthesis and catalysis of rare earth materials, the importance of water splitting, and more.

The Research Centre for Carbon-Strategic Catalysis was established in June 2022 as the first research centre focusing on carbon-strategic energy research among Hong Kong universities. It aims to serve as a platform that can strengthen the research partnerships and efforts of PolyU to achieve more impactful outputs in advanced catalyst design and synthesis to support sustainable energy development strategies.