Five scholars honoured with CityUHK Presidential Research Excellence Award

VENUS DOON

08 Oct 2026

CityUHK Presidential Research Excellence Award 2025

From left: Professor Hou, Professor Yu, Professor Leung, Professor Lee, Professor Huang, Professor Zheng and Professor Ye.

On 2 October, City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) held the CityUHK Presidential Research Excellence Award Ceremony to honour five distinguished scholars. The awardees have made remarkable achievements, advancing their respective disciplines and making a transformative impact in the fields of media and communication, biomedicine, computer science and chemistry.

In his remarks, Professor Chun-Sing Lee, Acting President, stated, “We hold this award to recognise researchers whose exceptional achievements since joining CityUHK have redefined their fields and driven progress. Our awardees have been selected for an outstanding record of world-class publications, competitive grants, patents and honours, and for contributions that travel beyond the laboratory and the page into practice, industry and public life.”

Professor Kenneth Leung Mei-yee, Vice-President (Research), remarked, “The awardees exemplify the research excellence and innovative spirit that define CityUHK’s mission of advancing knowledge and creating societal impact. I hope they will continue to pursue ambitious research and, equally importantly, share their experiences and mentor younger researchers, helping to cultivate the next generation of research leaders.”

This year’s awardees of the CityUHK Presidential Research Excellence Award are Professor Christine Huang Yi-hui, Chair Professor of the Department of Media and Communication, and Professor Yu Xinge, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Professor Huang noted, “This award recognises more than three decades of my sustained dedication to trust research. It also reminds us that meaningful research takes time to develop. Looking ahead, I hope to deepen our understanding of how trust is built and how it changes over time. I also hope to bring research from theory to practice, from universities to society, and across cultural contexts, so that it can make a broader impact.”

Professor Huang focuses on strategic communication, risk communication in health and technology, crisis communication, relationship management and conflict resolution. She was awarded the Research Grants Council (RGC) Senior Research Fellowship for her pioneering research on trust. She is currently working on a five-year research project that employs a longitudinal mixed-method approach with quantitative and qualitative methods, along with large language models, to develop and test a Situational Trust Dynamics Model.

Professor Yu noted, “When I joined the University, Professor Sun Dong, then Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and now Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, often reminded us that our personal achievements were also a collective win for the department. I have carried that message with me throughout my career. It has shaped my belief in collaboration.”

Professor Yu is at the forefront of research in flexible electronics, bio-integrated electronics, soft robots and human-machine interfaces. He seeks to bridge the gap between technology and traditional healthcare by developing innovative wearable products that monitor health conditions and improve the efficiency and accuracy of patient treatment. His team has made a series of breakthroughs in electronic skin research in recent years, including the recent development of a neuromorphic robotic electronic skin capable of active pain and injury perception, and generating autonomic reflexes.

In addition, three scholars received the CityUHK Presidential Research Excellence Award for Junior Faculty this year: Professor Zheng Zongli, from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Professor Hou Junhui, from the Department of Computer Science, and Professor Ye Ruquan, from the Department of Chemistry.

Professor Zheng noted, “I am deeply grateful for this prestigious award. It belongs to my entire research and development team. This recognition inspires us to continue our dedication to genomic medicine research and to developing affordable, one-and-done solutions for diseases with unmet needs.”

Professor Zheng specialises in gene rearrangement, precision genome editing and liquid biopsy. His team is dedicated to developing revolutionary genome editing medicine, taking a “DNA surgery” approach to fundamentally correct defective genes. Last year, he received funding from the HKSAR Government’s Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+) to develop two drug candidates for rare genetic liver and cardiovascular diseases. He is preparing these candidates for clinical trials.

Professor Hou noted, “This award also belongs to my collaborators and my students, whose curiosity and rigour have shaped our research. By the end of this year, I will have been at CityUHK for ten years. I will carry this encouragement forward and continue pushing the boundaries of this field.”

Professor Hou’s research focuses neural spatial computing, spanning representation, processing, and analysis of various multi-dimensional visual information, such as light field, hyperspectral, geometry, and event data, to enable more accurate perception, understanding, and interaction with complex physical and virtual environments. By developing innovative computational models and efficient learning frameworks, he aims to bridge the gap between digital and physical worlds, facilitating intelligent decision-making and human-centric experiences across diverse scientific, industrial, and societal domains.

Professor Ye noted, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to CityUHK for recognising our achievements in CO₂ valorisation. This success reflects the University’s invaluable support and resources, our colleagues’ generous assistance, my students’ dedication and hard work, and the vital contributions of our research collaborators.”

Professor Ye’s major areas of expertise include sustainable energy conversion, laser-assisted materials manufacturing and fluorescent nanomaterials. In recent years, his team has been dedicated to converting carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels, while developing innovative technologies for producing green hydrogen using solar and electrical energy. Through various technologies, such as microenvironment engineering, the team has enhanced energy conversion efficiency and reduced manufacturing costs, providing innovative solutions for carbon neutrality, green chemistry and next-generation materials technologies.