Professor Anderson Shum of the Department of Mechanical Engineering received Senior Research Fellowship 2020 by the Croucher Foundation. Professor Shum is internationally recognised for his works in microfluidics and soft matters, particularly on his pioneering contributions in combining all-aqueous formulations and droplet microfluidics. His research focuses on the engineering of aqueous droplet interfaces for designing new bio- and cyto-compatible materials. His research focuses on the engineering of aqueous droplet interfaces for designing new bio- and cyto-compatible materials. His team has pioneered the generation and control of allaqueous emulsion drops using microfluidic techniques, and demonstrated their ability to encapsulate delicate active biomolecules and to mimic complex biological droplets. When combined with microfluidic droplet manipulation techniques, designer biomaterials with excellent compatibility can be assembled for precision delivery of tunable quantities of active ingredients. He has over 110 peer-reviewed publications and his research interests include emulsions, biomicrofluidics, biomedical engineering and soft matters.
The Croucher Senior Research Fellowships scheme was first introduced in 1997. The Fellowships are awarded to local academics who have excelled in scientific research work. The awards are judged by a group of leading international scientists invited to provide confidential reviews of candidates nominated in a competitive exercise. The value of each award includes a HK$2 million research grant to the award winner. Separate funds are awarded to the universities of the fellowship recipients, enabling the university to recruit replacement teacher to take over the award winner’s duties for a twelve-month period. These currently stand at a maximum of HK$1,042,140 for the Senior Research Fellowships. The arrangement enables the awardees to devote more time and effort to research work.
With the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship, Professor Shum will engineer a new type of biomaterials, which are formed by assembling compatible droplets, each encapsulating and compartmentalizing a different active ingredient that can be cells or biomolecules. For more details about Professor Shum’s background and research, please visit http://cuhk.edu.hk/cpr/media/Prof_Anderson_Shum_e.pdf.