IAS Newsletter, September 2014

Abstract

HKUST JOCKEY CLUB SEP2014 IAS INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY NEWSLETTER FROM VILLAGE BOY TO PIONEER IN DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY Prof Ching W. Tang Is IAS doing a good enough job? Here is what the experts said. Quoting the report of the IAS External Review Panel* submitted to HKUST President Tony F. Chan in June 2014, “Recent decades have seen the establishment of institutes for advanced study in increasing numbers around the world. Although now typically established within existing universities, they provide environments where outstanding scholars and scientists can concentrate for sustained periods on the most challenging and promising areas of research in ways that are often not possible within the context of the university itself ... The accelerating growth in the number of such institutes provides a striking testimony to their effectiveness at producing profound breakthroughs and attracting many of the world’s leading researchers, with obvious benefits to the host university and its region. HKUST, through the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study, has seized the unique opportunity of providing such an institute for Hong Kong and the wider region. Great progress has been made, and excellent resources and facilities acquired, but these achievements must be built on vigorously if it is to realize its potential to become one of the world's leading scientific institutes.” Vision and mission affirmed. Goals clear. IAS will continue to drive research excellence within and beyond HKUST. Clearly many challenges remain if we aim to reach the next level. We will strive to get on board more prominent scholars irrespective of area. We also look forward to recruiting top scholars and rising stars in a few targeted areas who have the energy and high potential to attain international recognition. We will do our very best to continue the well-established IAS distinguished lectures by partnering with HKUST faculty to bring in renowned academic visitors. We will further strengthen the well-received IAS visitor program by engaging and linking up IAS visitors with HKUST faculty in different formats. We will work more closely with IAS Senior Fellows and IAS Fellows to elevate research standing. We will attract outstanding young researchers to join the team of IAS Postdoctoral Fellows. Working within a UGC recurrent budget of $22M (faculty salary excluded) as well as endowment income and donations, we are all set to execute our plans for 2014/15. Please read on to know more about our people, research and activities. Do share with us your brilliant ideas and valuable comments on making IAS your partner for research excellence! Your support is crucial for the future development of IAS. Henry Tye Director HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study * The IAS External Review Panel was appointed by HKUST President with the following membership: Chair: Prof David Gross (2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics; Former Director of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics; Chairman of IAS International Advisory Board) Members: Prof Jean-Pierre Bourguignon (President of the European Research Council; Former Director of Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques; Member of IAS International Advisory Board) Prof Peter Goddard (Former Director of Princeton IAS; Member of IAS International Advisory Board) Prof Chih-Ming Ho (Ben Rich-Lockheed Martin Professor, School of Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles; IAS Visiting Professor) Prof Sir James A. Mirrlees (1996 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences; Distinguished Professor-at-Large and Master of Morningside College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) On the balcony of IAS overlooking HKUST campus and Port Shelter, gazing afar, I ask myself, “How far will IAS go?” Starting as an operation with a star-studded international advisory board and a small group of famed IAS Visiting Professors some 8 years ago, bringing to Hong Kong the world-known physicist Stephen Hawking to give a public inaugural lecture on “The Origin of the Universe”, IAS has gone quite a way down the road. Since the repositioning approved by HKUST Council in 2011, we have appointed 3 internationally acclaimed academic leaders as IAS Professors, and 19 excellent, research active HKUST faculty as fellows; engaged more than 50 top scholars as regular visitors; as well as run a wide array of programs, conferences, distinguished lectures, etc. 1 Words from the Director Sep 2014 Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) is an electronic device that, by using organic semiconductors as the emitter, can efficiently produce visible light of practically any color. Because of its many desirable characteristics, including ultra-fast on/off switching time, low drive voltage, and wide-view angle, OLED has emerged as a key technology ideally suited for display applications. OLED is an invention by Prof Ching W. Tang. Born in Hong Kong, Prof Tang is the first Chinese recipient of the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry. In 2013, Prof Tang joined HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study as the first IAS Bank of East Asia Professor. Going “organic”, your invention of OLED has brought about notable breakthrough in display technology. How soon will OLED become affordable? How does OLED better our lives? I think OLED is affordable now. OLED has already found a major application – display screens for cellphones and tablets. Many of today’s smart phones use OLED screens because they look better compared to conventional LCD screens. They also consume less power. As a relatively new entry to the display market, OLED screens may cost a little more than comparable LCD screens, but the performance/price is very much in favor of the OLED screens. Another major application for OLED is high-definition television. Large companies like Samsung and LG have been promoting OLED as the ultimate display technology for HDTVs for some time. When OLED HDTVs were first introduced in October 2013, unfortunately they were very expensive, costing as much as US$10,000 for a 55” set. Since then the price has dropped dramatically – by almost 2/3. My guess is that it may take a few years for OLED HDTVs to reach price parity with LCD HDTVs. More manufacturers are gearing up OLED HDTV production, particularly in China, which will accelerate the price reduction. LCD has dominated the display market for many years, but it still has some serious performance limitations. For instance, it is nearly impossible for an LCD screen to produce a perfect black because it is fundamentally an imperfect light shutter. As a light emitter, OLED operates very differently. It can be completely turned off to produce a perfect black or instantly switched on to produce high brightness. Combined with its inherently saturated colors, OLED delivers a display screen with incredibly high dynamic contrast and color fidelity. Another important advantage is that OLED screens can be easily made flexible. This will enable new applications, like wearable displays. I have no doubt that OLED is the display technology for the future. It will be everywhere. IAS CHING A Chat with the Father of OLED, Prof Ching W. Tang 2 3 IAS Chatroom IAS Chatroom Sep 2014 Sep 2014 Let’s talk about your background. From a village boy in Yuen Long to the “Father of OLED”, you have experienced quite a transformation in your life. What do you think are the major driving forces that have contributed to your success today? Who has the most influence on you throughout the process? As a boy I enjoyed the simple village life. The village was a small community with a dozen families or so, all working in the field and raising farm animals for a living, including my mother who ran the farm while my father managed a shop in town. The village locals led fairly hard lives, but by and large they were self-sufficient. At the time (mid 1950’s) the village has not yet been electrified. I remember one of my jobs was to light kerosene lamps around the house in the evening. When electricity finally came to the village, I was fascinated by how easy it was to turn on the lights. More so, I was happy that I never had to light another kerosene lamp! And living in a farm, I had to help out in the rice field. I dreaded weeding with my bare hands and bended knees in the muddy field, so I came up with a raking tool made of scrap wood and nails to do the job standing up. I was delighted that the simple tool worked and made working in the field a little more tolerable. It seems that I have learned a valuable lesson quite early in my life - to get things done with less work. For the most part my early schooling was ordinary. Somehow I managed to get by as an average student, more interested in kicking football than hitting the books. That changed when, at 16, I was enrolled in the Yuen Long Public Middle School for the last two years of high school. I noticed that there were quite a few smart students in my class and they were dead serious about school work. The peer pressure was intense and I felt I had to study just to keep up. Indeed my fellow students inspired me to turn to books and I found my interest in science. I managed to do well enough in this school to earn the opportunity to complete my matriculation at King’s College, one of the top high schools in Hong Kong. After getting a BS in chemistry at the University of British Columbia in 1970, I ended up at Cornell doing my PhD with Professor Andreas C. Albrecht. It was an incredible experience working with a brilliant scientist, a critical thinker, and above all, a kind and compassionate human being. The five years I spent in Albrecht’s research group was like embarking on a journey in both science and humanity with a wise guide who would help chart the course with me but let me take the helm to experience the discoveries on my own. At the end, I felt I had learned enough to take on future adventures on my own. Albrecht has impacted my life and work in so many ways that I only hope I can pass them on to my own students. You first “connected” with HKUST as an IAS Visiting Professor back in 2011, and later on became the IAS Bank of East Asia Professor and Chair Professor of Electronic & Computer Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics in September 2013. Having spent more than 40 years in the US, why did you decide to come back to Hong Kong and in particular to join HKUST/IAS? Coming back to Hong Kong is like coming home. I spent the first 20 years of my life in Hong Kong, but I have spent many more years outside. I see coming back to Hong Kong as an exciting adventure in a familiar home territory, and I certainly hope it will be a worthwhile experience of discoveries and enrichments that I can relate to as a native. As a scientist and engineer, I am naturally drawn to HKUST. In its brief history, HKUST has become one of the best science and technology universities in the world. Personally I have come to know a few of the faculty members very well. Among them are Prof Hoi-Sing Kwok, Prof Man Wong, and Prof Vladimir G. Chigrinov of Electronic and Computer Engineering. We have significant overlap of interest in flat-panel display research, and I am hoping to build on our expertise and experience to establish a center of excellence in display research that will ultimately benefit the university and the display industry in Hong Kong and China. An important reason for joining HKUST is IAS. By being appointed one of the first IAS Professors, I am both humbled and honored. I am aware of the opportunities and challenges to help build IAS as a world-class research institute that will be relevant to HKUST and Hong Kong. I look forward to working with my colleagues at IAS/HKUST to fulfill this mission in the years ahead. Would you please share with us your grand plan with HKUST and IAS? Are there any specific expectations which you wish to highlight? My research will be on display technology. In particular, I will focus on OLED research, which has always been my interest. There is a rapidly growing industry based on OLED and a lot of money has poured into building up OLED manufacturing infrastructure in Asia Pacific region. China in particular is gearing up for manufacturing, although they are a late comer and their OLED R&D’s have yet to match those in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Our plan is to establish a display research center that will lead OLED research and development and help grow OLED industries in Hong Kong/China region. Despite its many advantages, OLED has a basic liability – insufficient lifetime, particularly for the blue emitter. If not solved, this liability could limit applications that require high brightness and long durability, such as HDTVs. Solving this problem will require material and device research. Another major issue is cost. To reach manufacturing cost parity with LCD, OLED cost must be reduced by 2 or 3 folds, at least for HDTVs. One of our goals is to develop a low-cost method for patterning large-area OLED displays, a bottleneck in OLED TV manufacturing. Our ultimate goal is to make OLED more robust and affordable. To this end, I envision strong collaboration with Prof Hoi-Sing Kwok and my colleagues in HKUST specialized in display research to come up with creative solutions. I also expect our center to be a fertile training ground for researchers in display and related science and technology. As a pioneer researcher, what suggestions you would have for the younger generation researchers in their quest for scientific discoveries? Looking back at my own experience, I would have to say the discovery and development of OLED was a process of mostly perspiration with a few inspiration moments. I was fortunate to be the person to discover the device structure that formed the basis of OLED, but I must acknowledge that it is the effort of many people over many years that has brought us today’s OLED technology. I don’t know if I have particular wisdom to dispense on scientific discoveries in general, but I do know working long and hard is essential as there are usually no quick and easy fixes for a difficult (and likely more interesting) problem. Often finding the solution is like wading through a zigzag path by taking two steps backward to make a step forward, even with the help of many people. Of course, the Eureka moment is always the driving force, however tedious the process is in getting there. It is highly satisfying to experience that moment in person. IAS CHING IAS CHING IAS CHING IAS CHING What is OLED? OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. In its most basic form, OLED is made of two thin layers of organic semiconductors - a p-type layer for transporting positive charges and a n-type layer for transporting negative charges - sandwiched between two electrodes - an anode and a cathode. When a voltage is applied to the electrodes, positive charges are injected from the anode and negative charges are injected from the cathode. These positive and negative charges recombine at the interface between the organic semiconductor layers to produce light - termed electroluminescence. OLED is regarded as green technology because it is highly efficient in generating light, using mostly carbon based synthetic materials. Currently OLED is mostly used for display applications. It is envisioned that it will have significant impact on energy saving for future lighting applications. Another honor For his pioneering work on OLED, Prof Tang has been chosen as the 2014 Nick Holonyak Jr Award winner. This award is presented by the Optical Society of America (OSA), a scientific society on optics and photonics founded in 1916, to an individual who has made “significant contributions to optics based on semiconductor-based optical devices and materials, including basic science and technological applications.” The award is named to honor Nick Holonyak Jr who invented light-emitting diode (LED). 4 5 IAS Chatroom IAS Chatroom Sep 2014 Sep 2014 Therapeutic proteins are proteins that are directly injected and used to restore a diseased status to normal. These proteins can provide a missing activity or can attenuate an excess activity, in either case bring the system back to a more homeostatic state. Prof Mingjie Zhang, IAS Senior Fellow and Kerry Holdings Professor of Science (middle) and the IAS HKUST-Scripps researchers (from left: Feng Wang, Carol Lau, Zhiwen Xu and Cario Lo) The past and future of therapeutic proteins One of the earliest and widely-applied therapeutic proteins is insulin for treating Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Another is erythropoietin (also known as EPO), a natural protein that stimulates growth of red blood cells, especially in people undergoing kidney dialysis or others who are anemic. Nowadays, more than 100 of therapeutic proteins are approved for clinical use in the European Union and the US with Year 2010 sales of US$108 billion. Scientists on one hand search for potential therapeutic proteins or their targets by investigating mechanisms of disease pathologies, and on the other hand develop technology to modify therapeutic proteins for enhancing their treatment effects and research new delivery strategy to safely and efficiently apply the proteins. At the moment, one of the variants has been tested in animal models for inflammatory conditions for which little are available to treat. Human clinical trials are being initiated. Recent research by IAS HKUST - Scripps R&D Lab We established a systematic methodology for discovery of novel naturally-occurring splice variants and characterization of their biological activities. Splice variants are novel versions of known proteins that have been reorganized into new structures with new activities. We found that, by analogy, each discovered variant is like a caterpillar being turned into a butterfly — a whole new shape and function that you could not have imagined. Prof Paul Schimmel, IAS Visiting Professor and Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry in The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) The existence of most of these new splice variants was unknown at the time the Laboratory initiated its investigations. We applied this methodology to the aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (AARS) and identified more than 250 new proteins that potentially can serve as therapeutic proteins. In principle, this analysis can be applied to any known genes for identification of more potential therapeutic proteins. In our platform, we developed an AARS transcriptome enrichment method and used high throughput deep sequencing to comprehensively identify new AARS variants. With deep sequencing we identified billions of bits of information about the variants. The project thus was highly dependent on sophisticated and powerful computing analysis, to sort out and interpret that data. In short, the work was an example of what is called today a 'big data' project. We then studied the AARS variants in the context of expression and distribution across various human tissues, and at different developmental stages (for example, fetal versus adult brain tissue). We also expressed the variants and examined potential biological activities in a diverse set of cell-based assays. Here again, 'big data' came into play, as we gathered over 100,000 data points and had to interpret all of them. Importantly, we found most variants had highly specific novel activities, which were idiosyncratic to the variant. The implication is that many diseases could be impacted by these discoveries. Working concertedly for six years, the research team of IAS HKUST-Scripps R&D Laboratory led by Prof Paul Schimmel, IAS Visiting Professor and Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at TSRI (California and Florida), has discovered 250 new proteins with previously unidentified activities. Such findings highlight an intriguing oddity of protein evolution as well as a potentially valuable new class of therapeutic proteins. The findings are published in Science in July 2014 with Prof Mingjie Zhang, IAS Senior Fellow and Kerry Holdings Professor of Science, Division of Life Science at HKUST as one of the co-authors of the report. Variants produced only in specific cells The research concerns aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (AARS), a group of 20 enzymes which connects the nucleotide codes contained in genes to their corresponding protein building-blocks, the 20 amino acids. By using advanced and sensitive techniques, the team collaborated with colleagues at TSRI in California and Florida and the biotech company aTyr Pharma has identified nearly 250 previously unknown gene-transcript variants of AARS in different human cell types. These variants, known as splice variants, are alternative assemblies of the discrete sequences of information contained in AARS genes. The team also revealed that the new AARS variants are often produced only in specific cell types such as brain or immune cells, and/or appear only during certain stages of development. Moreover, with the discovery on lacking “catalytic domain” for protein translation, it hinted at a diversity of the function of these variants. One variant for analysis is found to be a powerful driver for the proliferation of muscle fiber cells in a laboratory dish. Breakthrough on protein therapeutics As injectable proteins are displacing traditional chemical-based drugs, the finding of these enzymes represents a very important class of new protein therapeutics analogous to widely used injectable protein therapeutics such as growth hormone and insulin. The team and the collaborators will continue their hard work on more comprehensive studies of the new AARS variants and their specific functions. IAS-Scripps Scientists Discover 250 New Proteins The Exploration of Therapeutic Proteins By IAS HKUST - Scripps R&D Lab The new findings on AARS have been published on Science in July 2014. For more details on the influence, please read to “IAS-Scripps Scientists Discover 250 New Proteins” on P.7. Knowledge Corner IAS Community Sep 2014 Sep 2014 6 7 Serving as an intellectual hub for scholars, experts and talented students, IAS hosted this year’s Research in Industrial Projects for Students - Hong Kong (RIPS-HK), a summer research plus industrial internship and international education exchange program. Organized by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) from UCLA in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics from HKUST, 8 students from US and 8 from Hong Kong formed 4 cross-cultural teams to work on different projects. The project teams had to find solutions using analytical and computational approaches and techniques with support from the local partners including Lenovo, Hong Kong Observatory, Microsoft Research Asia and BGI. Active interactions in IAS The RIPS-HK program was kicked off with an opening ceremony held in the IAS Lecture Theater on 10 June 2014. Students spent 9 weeks from late June to early August in IAS. Active discussions and engaging presentations were held to encourage students to learn about the problem, master the latest analytical and computational approaches and techniques to solve it, and develop report-writing and public-speaking skills to make professional presentations about the progress and results of their work to a scientific audience. Students also had chances to meet different scholars and fellows of IAS under a friendly environment. The IAS Program on Particle Theory gathered three generations of alumni and students from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) at IAS this summer. The relatively “senior citizens” are Tao Liu and Yanjun Tu. Tao has been an Assistant Professor of Physics at HKUST since February 2013 and is a co-organizer of the Program. Yanjun was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Diego. She visited IAS in the past two seasons and has just joined the faculty of the University of Hong Kong this September. Yi Wang, an alumnus of USTC’s School for the Gifted Young, received his PhD in 2009 and is currently on a Stephen Hawking Advanced Fellowship at University of Cambridge. He visited HKUST in July 2014 and gave talks on Cosmic Microwave Background anomalies. Siyi Zhou is a fresh graduate from the Department of Modern Physics at USTC. She completed her undergraduate thesis in supersymmetry and Higgs earlier this year and spent a few months at IAS before starting PhD studies under Tao’s supervision. The youngest of the quintet is Junyu Liu, a third year student at USTC. This is an eye-opening experience for this 19-year-old to interact and work with experts in the discipline. The IAS Program on Particle Theory is a long-standing initiative that runs regular talks and discussions. More than 60 overseas visitors, ranging from graduate students to faculty, have participated in the program since February 2013. DIVERSITY IN HARMONY NEUTRINOS: Little Known, More to Unearth 1 Platform, 2 USTs, 3 GENERATIONS In August, IAS organized two visits to the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment Facility, which is located near the Daya Bay and Ling Ao nuclear power plants in China. The visits were joined by President Tony F. Chan, visitors of IAS and faculty and students from the Department of Physics at HKUST. Prof Kam-Biu Luk, US team lead and co-spokesperson of the Experiment, also joined the visit. Neutrinos are uncharged particles produced in nuclear reactions, such as in the sun or by cosmic waves. They flooded the universe right after the Big Bang. However, being electrically neutral, their existence is difficult to detect. By observing the interactions of electron antineutrinos in the massive detectors buried in the mountains adjacent to the Daya Bay nuclear reactors, scientists found out a new type of neutrino transformation. Such a discovery opened a gateway to understand the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe, and was named one of the “Top Ten Science Breakthroughs” by Science in 2012. The Daya Bay Collaboration includes more than 200 scientists and engineers from the Chinese Mainland, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia and the Czech Republic. In July 2014, Hong Kong was accepted as a member joining the ATLAS Collaboration (a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)) which operates the world’s largest particle detectors at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), Switzerland. In 2012, the ATLAS team, along with CERN’s CMS Collaboration (CMS, the Compact Muon Solenoid, is a general-purpose detector at the LHC), co-discovered the Higgs boson, or the so-called “God Particle”. The Hong Kong group operates under the Joint Consortium for Fundamental Physics comprising colleagues and students from HKUST, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. IAS Junior Fellow Dr Kirill Prokofiev is the convener of ATLAS’s Higgs combination and properties subgroup and vertex reconstruction subgroup. USTCers (from left: Yanjun Tu, Junyu Liu, Tao Liu, Yi Wang, Siyi Zhou) and Prof Henry Tye (IAS, HKUST) From left: Prof Michael Altman (Head of Physics, HKUST), Prof Henry Tye (IAS, HKUST), Prof Jenny Lee (HKU), Prof Kam-Biu Luk (UC Berkeley & HKU), President Tony F. Chan and Prof Joseph Lee (VPRG, HKUST) President Tony F. Chan and Prof Tim Leung (MATH, HKUST) IAS Community IAS Community Sep 2014 Sep 2014 8 9 IAS congratulates Prof Manjul Bhargava and Prof Stanley Osher, both IAS Visiting Professors, on receiving prestigious awards in the International Congress of Mathematicians 2014 (ICM 2014) held in Seoul, South Korea. Prof Manjul Bhargava was honored as a Fields Medalist. Often regarded as the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics”, the Fields Medal is awarded every four years on the occasion of the ICM to mathematicians not over 40 years of age to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement. Prof Bhargava was selected for his work on developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers and applying them in elliptic curves. Prof Stanley Osher won the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize, granted jointly by the International Mathematical Union and the German Mathematical Society. Prof Osher was honored for his influential contributions in applied mathematics which enhance development on computer vision, image processing, and computer graphics. At the Congress, Prof Bhargava gave a plenary lecture titled “Rational points on elliptic and hyperelliptic curves” and a Gauss Prize lecture on Prof Osher’s work was also held. IAS WORKSHOP ON NEW PERSPECTIVES ON COSMOLOGY There have been rapid developments in cosmology in the recent years, with pronounced progress in terms of both theory and experiments. In order to promote stimulating discussions and initiate possible collaborations, especially among scholars in the region, a workshop on New Perspectives on Cosmology was held at IAS on 19-23 May 2014. The workshop was jointly sponsored by IAS and the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics which is based in South Korea. Over 75% of the overseas participants are experts in the field from nearby Asian countries including the Chinese Mainland, Japan, South Korea, etc. Current topics such as cosmic microwave background and gravitational waves were among the central themes of the workshop. Besides technical talks from the experts, there was a panel discussion about the recent trends of observational cosmology moderated by IAS Senior Fellow and Chair Professor of Physics Gary Shiu, who also chaired the Workshop’s organizing committee. To encourage participation from the local community, postdocs and postgraduate students from HKUST and the Chinese University of Hong Kong were invited to deliver short talks. IAS Visiting Professors received prestigious Mathematics awards IAS Visiting Professors IAS Junior Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellows IAS Senior Visiting Fellows Name Position Research Areas IAS also extends a warm welcome to the following new members: Manjul Bhargava R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University Number Theory, Representation Theory, Algebraic Geometry Ping Cheng Chair Professor of School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Boiling and Condensation in Microsystems, Heat Transfer, Fuel Cells Alexander Ljungqvist Ira Rennert Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship, New York University Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurial Finance, Empirical Asset Pricing, Forensic Finance, Investment Banking Tom Rapoport Professor of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School Membrane Biology, Cell Biology, Structural Biology Liang An IAS Postdoctoral Fellow Sasidaran Gopalan IAS Postdoctoral Fellow International Finance and Development Fuel Cells, Lithium-air Batteries, Flow Batteries, Renewable Energy Storage Daisy Huang IAS Postdoctoral Fellow Corporate Finance Christina Jenq IAS Postdoctoral Fellow Labor Economics and Labor Econometrics Statistical Finance Yongxin Philip Li IAS Postdoctoral Fellow Natural Product Chemistry, Natural Product Biosynthesis Sichun Sun IAS Postdoctoral Fellow Nuclear and Particle Theory Tengfei Li IAS Postdoctoral Fellow Kirill Prokofiev IAS Junior Fellow and Research Assistant Professor of Physics Experimental Particle Physics Jamal Deen Senior Canada Research Chair in Information Technology, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University Microelectronics, Nanoelectronics, Opto-electronics Curtis Suttle Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Microbiology and Immunology, and Botany, University of British Columbia Biological Oceanography, Marine Microbiology, Environmental Virology Prof Manjul Bhargava at the Fields Medal presentation ceremony 10 11 Event Highlights Sep 2014 IAS Community Sep 2014 Microeconometrics has been one of the most active research areas in economics in the recent decades, with significant furtherance in identifying, estimating and testing various microeconometric models. The IAS Workshop on Advances in Microeconometrics held on 23-24 May 2014 brought together some of the most prominent researchers to discuss recent research advancements in the field. IAS Senior Fellow and Chair Professor of Economics Songnian Chen co-organized the workshop with Prof Andrew Chesher from University College London and Prof Hidehiko Ichimura from the University of Tokyo. In addition to invited speakers from these institutions, the two-day intensive workshop also attracted participants from Singapore, South Korea and the United States. While the theories and techniques such as Bayes’s law, regression models and generalized method of moments have emerged for years or decades, the economists have managed to draw new simulations, perform data analysis to separate information and develop new estimation methods to correct biases and minimize errors. Inspirational results of such research were shared among the participants. Their applications are useful for developing models to study economic growth, wage inequality, decisions on market entry, etc. To elevate the research atmosphere among the HKUST community, IAS organizes Focused Programs during term time. The IAS Focused Program aims to provide the opportunity for in-depth discussions in particular research topics. The first IAS Focused Program on Computational and Experimental Immunology was held on 12-15 May 2014. The development in biomedical technologies over the past few years has enabled researchers to gather large quantities of biological data. The advancement in computational algorithms and the availability of high performance computing resources make it possible to process such large quantities of data. This has opened up new opportunities for researchers to look at the pressing problems in complex biological systems in general and immunological systems in particular from a computational perspective. Led by Prof I-Ming Hsing, Head of Division of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at HKUST; Prof Arup K. Chakraborty, IAS Visiting Professor from MIT; and the local organizing committee involving HKUST professors, this 4-day program brought together researchers and leading experts in the field of computational immunology to stimulate intellectual discussion on topics of mutual interests and explore possible avenues of collaboration. IAS Focused Program on COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL IMMUNOLOGY 12 13 Event Highlights Event Highlights Sep 2014 Sep 2014 Rapidly growing experimental and theoretical efforts in cold atoms research have been taking place in Asia in recent years. In particular, experiments with ultracold atoms are important for scientists to understand quantum phase transition and simulate quantum state of matter that are difficult to realize in solid state materials. This IAS program covered the most exciting topics in the field and ideated the major research directions for the years ahead. The five-day program (23-27 June 2014) comprised a summer school and a mini workshop. Lectures incorporating basic knowledge of the hot topics were delivered in the mornings, while seminars related to specific sub-fields were held in the afternoons. In between, there were ample brainstorming discussions which facilitated free exchange of ideas. Led by Prof Jason Ho, IAS Senior Visiting Fellow from the Ohio State University, the program featured local experts from HKUST, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Invited speakers from Rutgers University and Tsinghua University also shared their latest research outcomes. The Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) were initiated by Dr Neil E. Gordon, of the Johns Hopkins University, who recognized in the late 1920s the difficulty in establishing good and direct communication between scientists, whether working in the same subject area or in interdisciplinary research. These Conferences promote discussions and the free exchange of ideas at the research frontiers of the biological, chemical and physical sciences. Scientists with common professional interests come together for a full week of intense discussion and examination of the most advanced aspects of their field. These Conferences also provide a valuable means of disseminating information and ideas in a way that cannot be achieved through the usual channels of communication – publications and presentations at large scientific meetings. A series of 2-day meetings, Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), would also be organized by graduate students and post-docs with the support of leading scientists from an associated GRC. This aims to bring young scientists together to discuss their current research and build informal networks with their peers that may lead to a lifetime of collaboration and scientific achievements. In 2014, four GRCs and one GRS organized by the Gordon Research Conferences with IAS as local partner in Hong Kong were held. They cover “Hybrid Electronic & Photonic Materials and Phenomena”, “Molecular & Cellular Neurobiology”, “Genomic Instability” and “Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure Development”. Around 600 academics and graduate students participated and the majority of them were non-locals. GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES @HKUST IAS 2014 14 15 Event Highlights Event Highlights Sep 2014 Sep 2014 Dates Topic Organizers (Partial) Twelve IAS topical research programs and focused programs were organized in 2013-14. The following eight programs will be held in Fall and Winter 2014-15. Oct - Dec 2014 Chinese Creative Writing Jianmei Liu HUMA Zaifu Liu IAS Senior Visiting Fellow 3-13 Nov 2014 Neural Engineering Tom Daniel University of Washington I-Ming Hsing BME 17-21 Nov 2014 Scattering Amplitudes in Hong Kong Zvi Bern University of California at Los Angeles Henry Tye IAS / PHYS 25 Nov - 3 Dec 2014 Bio-inspired Flight System and Bio-inspired Autonomous System I-Ming Hsing BME Hao Liu Chiba University 15-19 Dec 2014 Physical Approach to Simplifying Complexity in Biology Robert Austin Princeton University; IAS Visiting Professor Leihan Tang Hong Kong Baptist University 15-19 Dec 2014 Multiscale Modeling and Simulation of Defect Problems in Materials Science Tim Leung MATH Xiaoping Wang MATH, IAS Senior Fellow Xiang Yang MATH 2-16 Jan 2015 IMA-HK-IAS Joint Program on Statistics and Computational Interface to Big Data Jointly organized with Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, University of Minnesota and Center for Statistical Science, HKUST Jianqing Fan Princeton University; IAS Visiting Professor Thomas Y. Hou California Institute of Technology; IAS Visiting Professor Bingyi Jing MATH Xiaoping Wang MATH, IAS Senior Fellow 5-30 Jan 2015 Future of High Energy Physics Jointly organized with Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Joint Consortium of Fundamental Physics, Hong Kong John Ellis CERN and King's College London; IAS Visiting Professor David Gross Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics; Chair of IAS International Advisory Board Tao Liu PHYS Please visit our website at http://ias.ust.hk for further information about these programs and other IAS events such as conferences, IAS Distinguished Lectures and Joint School Lectures. As a unique academic platform where great minds converge, IAS offers unparalleled opportunities for HKUST faculty members to bring in renowned scholars from around the world for various forms of academic activities: IAS Distinguished Lectures for distinguished scholars to give a lecture of general interests. IAS Joint School Lectures / Seminars for outstanding scholars to give a talk of a specific topic. IAS Programs comprising short courses, workshops, and in some cases postdoc-led / postgraduate student-led discussion sessions. Fully-fledged programs mostly take place during term break, while smaller-scale focused programs on particular topics are also organized during the term. IAS Visitors Programs (IAS Visiting Professors and IAS Senior Visiting Fellows) for prestigious scholars to make regular visits to IAS on collaborative projects with HKUST faculty members. Sponsorship of Plenary / Invited Speakers of Activities for faculty members to help IAS build clusters of research activities and new initiatives at HKUST in the form of standalone conferences, workshops, seminars, symposiums, etc. Please visit our webpage at http://ias.ust.hk/proposal for further details, or contact our Director Prof Henry Tye and Executive Director Prof Che Ting Chan to discuss further (email: ias@ust.hk / tel: 2358 5968). Call for Proposals 16 Event Highlights Sep 2014 HKUST JOCKEY CLUB INSTITUTE for ADVANCED STUDY Lo Ka Chung Building, Lee Shau Kee Campus, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2358 5912 Fax: (852) 2719 6615 Email: ias@ust.hk Web: ias.ust.hk Online version can be found at http://ias.ust.hk/newsletter