About The Hong Kong
Laureate Forum

The Hong Kong Laureate Forum aspires to be a world-class academic exchange event to connect the current and next generations of leaders in scientific pursuit, and to promote understanding and interests of the young generation in Hong Kong and around the world in various disciplines in science and technology.

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Inaugural Forum

 

The inaugural Hong Kong Laureate Forum took place on 13-18 November 2023. Shaw Laureates and distinguished scientists spent a week in Hong Kong interacting with almost 200 young scientists and Forum Ambassadors from around the world, sharing their views, experience and aspirations in various scientific fields. The week of programme consisted of world-class intellectual seminars, discussion groups, poster sessions and visits to the latest Hong Kong scientific development projects, universities and institutes as well as cross-cultural social activities.

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Shaw Laureates

 
The Shaw Prize is an international award to honour individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and significant advances, who have made outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research or applications, or who in other domains have achieved excellence. 

 

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Call of Climate

22 Apr is "Earth Day", one of the world's largest environmental protection events, with nearly 200 countries responded so far, aiming to protect the environment and create a better planet. This year, to discuss the impact of climate change, we have prepared 10 climate-related videos coined as "Call of Climate" supplemented with science knowledge, having Mr LEUNG Wing Mo, Former Assistant Director of the Hong Kong Observatory and Ms Natalie CHUNG, Co-Founder of V'air Hong Kong, an environmental education organisation to promote low-carbon tourism, as the hosts. Episodes will be published on our website and social media platforms. Stay tuned!

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Science in the Community

The Newly Developed High-Efficiency Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction System Targets to Reduce Carbon Footprint and Progress Carbon Neutrality Goals

Background: Global warming continues to pose a threat to human society and the ecological systems, and carbon dioxide accounts for the largest proportion of the greenhouse gases that dominate climate warming. To combat climate change and move towards the goal of carbon neutrality, researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed a durable, highly selective and energy-efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction system that can convert CO2 into ethylene for industrial purposes to provide an effective solution for reducing CO2 emissions...

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Gut Microbiota Modulation for Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome: Current Evidence

Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome ("long COVID") refers to long-term symptoms that persist after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, affecting multiple organs and systems. Long COVID affects over 65 million people worldwide, yet effective treatment is limited. Our research team at the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK Medicine) has completed a large-scale double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial, which confirmed that patients who were given an oral synbiotic preparation (SIM01) developed by CUHK experienced significant alleviation in various long COVID symptoms...

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Alpacas and Nanobodies

When we think of alpacas, the first things that pop up in our minds may be holiday farms or alpaca fleece. However, if you ask a biomedical scientist, they may have thought of nanobody, fragment of a special type of antibody...

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Astronomical Phenomena in May and June 2020


Every year, there are many astronomical phenomena of different scale. The last supermoon in 2020 happened on 7 May. A supermoon occurs when the Moon comes to the closest point to the Earth at the time of a full moon. The Moon will appear as much as 30 percent brighter and about 14 percent larger than usual. Although the supermoon in May caught the eyes of many astrophotographers, it was not the closest full supermoon. On 14 November 2016, the closest full supermoon since 1948 occurred and it will not be surpassed until 25 November 2034. There will be two supermoon phenomena on 26-27 April and 26 May 2021. Let’s see how big the moon will be on these dates.

In June 2020, there are at least two phenomena that will catch the attention of the astrophotographers in Hong Kong. A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur on 5-6 June and then another one on 4-5 July 2020. However, only the one on 6 June will be visible in Hong Kong. Penumbral lunar eclipse occurs more often compared to total and partial lunar eclipse. You may find out more on the formation of penumbral lunar eclipse here.

An annular solar eclipse will also be visible on 21 June 2020 in South/East Europe, North Australia, much of Asia and Africa, the Pacific Ocean as well as the Indian Ocean. However, people in Hong Kong can only see a partial eclipse. The same also happened on 26 December 2019. Find out more about the cause of solar eclipse and the proper way to observe this phenomenon here.

A solar eclipse never comes alone! It always occurs about two weeks before or after a lunar eclipse. Usually, there are two eclipses in a row, one solar and one lunar, but there may occasionally be three, lunar, solar, then another lunar eclipse or solar, lunar, then another solar eclipse during the same eclipse season.

Don’t miss the chance to observe these astronomical phenomena!

Acknowledgement:
Ho Koon Nature Education cum Astronomical Centre (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen)
Photo credit:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of technology