Hung Hing Ying Distinguished Visiting Professor in Science and Technology and alumnus of HKU’s Department of Physics, Professor Luk Kam-biu, has been named a laureate of China’s 2019 Future Science Prize. The Future Science Prize is considered China’s ‘Nobel Prize’ and is awarded jointly by groups of scientists and entrepreneurs. Professor Luk, who is also a Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won the prize in physical sciences jointly with Professor Wang Yifang, Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The pair have led the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment and contributed to the discovery of a new type of neutrino oscillation, which opens the door for new advances in physics. HKU is a co-leader of the Daya Bay project with 41 other universities and research institutions and Professor Luk praised the teamwork involved, singling out HKU. “HKU has played a special role in this endeavour. It was through the first meeting held in the Physics Department at HKU that the Daya Bay project was launched. The generous support of the HKU administration during the early stage of the initiative undoubtedly seeded the success of the experiment,” he said.

Professor Luk previously won the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and used part of the fund to establish the Luk Kam-Biu Prize in Experimental Physics in HKU’s Department of Physics to encourage students to specialise in experimental physics. He is also mentoring Assistant Professor Dr Jenny Lee in the Department of Physics in nuclear physics.