An international research team led by Professor Philip C.Y. Chow at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has unveiled a new catalyst that overcomes a major challenge in producing green hydrogen at scale. This innovation makes the process of producing oxygen efficiently and reliably in the harsh acidic environment used by today’s most promising industrial electrolysers.

A research team from the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has harnessed citywide genetic data and developed a novel genome-resolved tracking method to uncover precisely how antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their resistance genes move across Hong Kong’s environment, offering vital insights into strategies for safeguarding public health.

35 million euros, 210 scientists, 12 years of research: after the maximum duration of three funding periods, the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TRR 142 ‘Tailor-made non-linear photonics: From fundamental concepts to functional structures’ is officially winding down in December 2025. Scientists at Paderborn University and TU Dortmund University have achieved great things and literally shone a light into darkness with their research contributions.

Professor Nicholas X. Fang, Jockey Club STEM Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, and Professor Xiang Zhang, HKU President and Vice-Chancellor, and Chair of Physics in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, have been jointly awarded the 2025 Brillouin Medal by the International Phononics Society (IPS). The honour recognises their pioneering discovery of ultrasonic metamaterials with negative elastic modulus.

A cross-institutional research team led by researchers from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), under the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), have achieved a major breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware by developing a new type of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that uses innovative memristor technology.

A research team led by Prof. Tao Jiang and Prof. Jing Li from State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Academy of Military Medical Science, in collaboration with Prof. Shi-Shun Zhao from College of Mathematics, Jilin University and Prof. Jianwei Wang from NHC Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens and Christophe Merieux Laboratory, National Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, developed a viral risk prediction framework named GIVAL based on the pre-trained viral protein language model vBERT. This study proposes a general intelligent prediction method for assessing adaptation risks of unknown viruses.

Kyoto, Japan -- Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity with zero resistance, usually only at very low temperatures. Most superconductors behave according to well-established rules, but strontium ruthenate, Sr₂RuO₄, has defied clear understanding since its superconducting properties were discovered in 1994. It is considered one of the cleanest and best-studied unconventional superconductors, yet scientists still debate the precise structure and symmetry of the electron pairing that gives rise to its remarkable properties.

One powerful way to identify the underlying superconducting state is to measure how the superconducting transition temperature, or T_c, changes under strain, since different superconducting states respond differently when a crystal is stretched, compressed, or twisted. Many earlier experiments, especially ultrasound studies, suggested that Sr₂RuO₄ might host a two-component superconducting state, a more complex form of superconductivity that can support exotic behaviors such as internal magnetic fields or multiple coexisting superconducting domains. But a genuine two-component state is expected to respond strongly to shear strain.

This inspired a team of researchers from Kyoto University to use strain to understand the true nature of the superconducting state of Sr₂RuO₄. The researchers developed a technique that allowed them to apply three distinct kinds of shear strain to extremely thin Sr₂RuO₄ crystals. Shear strain is a type of distortion that shifts part of the crystal sideways, similar to sliding the top of a deck of cards relative to the bottom. The strain levels were carefully measured using high-resolution optical imaging down to 30 degrees K (−243 degrees C). The key discovery: the superconducting temperature hardly changed at all. Any shift in T_c was smaller than 10 millikelvin per percent strain, effectively below the detection limit.

What if the factories building tomorrow’s aerospace components, medical devices, and clean energy systems could do so without fueling the climate crisis?

That future is now within reach—thanks to groundbreaking research from Dr. Giulia Colombini at the Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari,” University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.