Media

Professor Che Chi Ming, Chair Professor and Zhou Guangzhao Professorship in Natural Sciences at the Department of Chemistry of Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has received the First Class Award of 2019 Shenzhen Science and Technology Prize from the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (SZSTIC).

Professor Che specialises in synthesis of inorganic and organic chemistry, inorganic and metal organic photochemistry, photocatalysis and bioinorganic medicine, and has significant achievements in the studies of high-valent metal ligand multiple bond complex, inorganic and metal organic light emitting materials, photo-induced electrons and atom transfer reaction, as well as asymmetric olefin epoxidation.

Professor Che thanks his research team members including Dr Cheng Gang, Dr To Wai Pong, Dr Lok Chun Nam and Dr Zou Taotao for their dedicated hard work to make the research a success.

Professor Che has made innovative discoveries in inorganic photochemistry, electron transfer in multinuclear compounds and atom transfer chemistry. In particular, his outstanding contribution to the study in reactive metal-ligand multiple bonded complexes won him the First Class prize of the State Natural Science Award in 2007. He is the first Hong Kong scientist to have received the honour.

The Shenzhen Science and Technology Prize was established in accordance with the Shenzhen Science and Technology Prize Incentives and related implementing rules. It is seen as the important window for the scientific and technological development in Shenzhen, which provides the essential motivation for the realisation of innovative breakthroughs in the city. Professor Che is the first HKU scholar to receive the award.

Professor Che was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences as academician in 1995, the US National Academy of Sciences as foreign associate in 2013, the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences as founding member and vice president in 2015. Professor Che is now the Director of the Synthetic Chemistry State Key Laboratory, HKU-CAS Joint Laboratory on New Materials and Shanghai-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory in Chemical Synthesis. He also serves the editorial board for Chemical Review and other internationally recognised academic journals.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Cindy Chan, Assistant Director of Communications of Faculty of Science (Tel: 3917 5286; email: cindycst@hku.hk) .