Three scholars from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have been awarded the 4th BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize in recognition of their groundbreaking contributions across life and health, artificial intelligence, and new energy sectors, respectively.
Organized by the Hong Kong Alliance of Technology and Innovation, the award honours outstanding achievements in five fields, with CUHK emerging as the biggest winner by claiming three categories.
Allen Chan Kwan-chee, professor of Chemical Pathology and chairman of the Department of Chemical Pathology, was honoured in the “Life and Health” category for developing non-invasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome.
The technology eliminates the psychological stress and miscarriage risk associated with traditional invasive examinations and has been adopted by more than 100 million pregnant women worldwide.
Chan also pioneered a test capable of detecting more than 50 types of cancer through plasma DNA screening, enabling the early identification of asymptomatic cancers and improving patient survival rates.
Lin Dahua, associate professor in the Department of Information Engineering, Medicine and Therapeutics and director of CUHK Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, received the award in “Artificial Intelligence and Robotics” for his systematic innovations in computer vision and multimodal intelligence.
His breakthroughs in image and video understanding, multimodal large-scale models, and spatial intelligence have strengthened key core technological self-reliance and advanced the open-source research ecosystem.
Lu Yi-chun, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, won in the “New Materials and New Energy” field. Specializing in aqueous flow batteries, she developed molecular catalysts and charge-reinforced ion-selective membrane to advance the commercialization of sulfur-based flow batteries and support the global transition to green energy.
Each awardee receives HK$2 million in prize money, recognizing their cutting-edge research and inventions.
Sham Mai-har, CUHK Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), expressed encouragement over the trio’s success. She hoped that the awardees would continue to leverage Hong Kong’s unique position as a hub connecting the Greater Bay Area and the world and inject strong momentum into the city’s development as an international innovation and technology center.
