Leading scientists will exchange innovative views on contemporary trends in the chemistry of 2D materials at a three-day online conference co-organised by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Nature Conferences, the preeminent series curated by the highly prestigious science journal Nature and Nature journals.

Held from 17 to 19 May, “Nature Conferences - Chemistry of 2D Materials” will be a multidisciplinary forum for sharing research and establishing future research directions. Discussions will focus on the syntheses of 2D materials, as well as their chemical functionalisation.

The May event serves as a pre-launch activity for a major CityU initiative, HK Tech Forum, a bold new platform taking place through until December for examining strategies and approaches to major challenges in science and technology. 

“This is the first time that a Nature Conference is being held with a university in Hong Kong and we are proud that the event is in partnership with CityU bringing together some of the best scholars in the field of the chemistry of 2D materials,” said President Way Kuo of CityU. 

Speakers from world-leading universities in Asia, Europe and North America, including the University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, Peking University, Imperial College London, and the University of California, Los Angeles, among many others, will lead talks at the conference. 

Professor Zhang Hua, Herman Hu Chair Professor of Nanomaterials at CityU, will be one of the first speakers with a talk titled “Phase Engineering of Nanomaterials”, i.e. the synthesis of nanomaterials with unconventional phases and the phase transformation of nanomaterials. 

As one of the fastest-growing universities in the world, CityU is ranked top in Hong Kong in Citations per Faculty in the QS World University Rankings, averaged over 5 years from 2017 to 2021. According to Stanford University, over 170 CityU faculty members are listed among the top 2% of the world's most highly cited scientists. CityU is also ranked 1st among local universities for five years in a row in the top 100 universities for granted US utility patents by the National Academy of Inventors. 

HK Tech Forum brings together award-winning scientists and will be an excellent vehicle for letting the world know more about CityU’s tremendously exciting research achievements as part of our continuous drive to promote the CityU brand.

Scheduled sessions for HK Tech Forum over the next few months will focus on Data Science and AI, Reliability and Safety of Intelligent Systems, Advanced Matter and Materials, Carbon Neutrality and Sustainable Environment, Quantum Physics and Applications, and Metabolism in Health and Disease.

Turing Award winner Professor John Hopcroft of Cornell University and famed AI entrepreneur Dr Lee Kai-Fu will give talks at the July forum on Data Science and AI. Another Turing Award winner, Professor Joseph Sifakis, Emeritus Research Director at Verimag Laboratory, will explore ideas related to self-driving cars at the August forum on the Reliability and Safety of Intelligent Systems.

Media enquiries: Karen Cheng (Tel: 3442 6805 or 9201 8895), Communications and Public Relations Office