Prof. L. Q. “Rick” Wang received his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, Canada, and is currently a chair professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Programme at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He also serves as the Director and the Chief Scientist for the Laboratory for Nanofluids and Thermal Engineering at the Zhejiang Institute of Research and Innovation (HKU-ZIRI), the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Wang has 26 years of HKU experience in transport phenomena, biomedical engineering, materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy and environment, thermal and power engineering, and mathematics, and ~2 years of industry experience in technology and IP development, management, and transfer as a Chief Scientist and Global CTO. In addition to 11 scholarly monographs/books, five book chapters, 79 keynote lectures at international conferences, and over 170 invited lectures in universities/industries/organizations, Prof. Wang has published 256 papers in various prestigious journals including Science, Nature Nanotechnology,Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials,PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Chemical Reviews, Physics Reports, and Materials Today, many of which have been widely used by researchers all over the world. Prof. Wang has also filed 39 patents and software copyrights, and developed, with an international team consisting of about 100 scientists and engineers, a state-of-the-art thermal control system for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the International Space Station that ensures AMS and all its sub-detectors working at their designed temperatures ±1℃ for an environment temperature variation from -40℃ to 60℃ every 90 minutes. His work has been widely featured by local, national, and international media, journals, and magazines, and received recognition through a number of awards, including the 2021 Gold Medal of International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, the 2018 TechConnect Global Innovation Award, the 2018 Silver Medal of International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, the 2017 OSA Innovation Award, the 2016 First Outstanding Achievement Award of Hangzhou Oversea Scholars, the 2012 Qianren (Zhejiang) Chair Professorship, and the 2010 Taishan Chair Professorship, among others.

Research Areas:

Droplet microfluidics & materials

Early diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases

Engineering materials with designed micro-/nano-structures to confer new properties

Microfluidics-enabled soft and intelligent manufacturing

Soft and micro actuators/motors/robots/sensors

Thermodynamics

Fluid mechanics

Heat and mass transfer

Research Projects:

Ten recent representative RGC-GRF projects

1. 17205421: Photopyroelectric microfluidics: a contamination-free fluidic processor, HK$1139146.

2. 17204420: Asymmetric fibers for efficient fog harvesting, HK$ 873995.

3. 17210319: Engineering micromotors using droplet microfluidics, HK$695919.

4. 17204718: Liquid-repellent surfaces: microfluidic-droplet-based fabrication of springtail-cuticle-like porous surfaces, HK$632421.

5. 17237316: Chemoembolization microparticles: microfluidic fabrication and characterization, HK$482605.

6. 17211115: Engineering embolic microparticles with uniform shape and size, HK$871044.

7. 17207914: Microfluidic fabrication of thermally smart nanoparticle colloidosomes with single or multiple compartments, HK$875000.

8. 717613: Engineering water and oil with ultra-high thermal conductivity, HK$836450.

9. 718111: Smart and high-conductive nanofluids, HK$681195.

10. 718009: Microfluidic nanofluids: synthesis and characterization, HK$901271.