CHEN Xinzi

CHEN Xinzi

ALBERT SUN-CHI CHAN

Professor Albert Sun-Chi Chan is a world-renowned organic chemist, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Emeritus President and Vice-Chancellor of Hong Kong Baptist University.

Professor Chan received his bachelor’s degree from International Christian University in Japan in 1975 and his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago respectively in 1976 and 1979. Upon graduation from Chicago, he started an industrial career at the Monsanto Corporate Research Laboratories where he had worked for 13 years, rising through the ranks of Senior Research Chemist, Research Specialist, Senior Research Specialist and finally Monsanto Fellow. In 1992-1993 he taught at National Taiwan University as a Visiting Expert. Since joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1994, Professor Chan had served as Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles, and Vice President (Research Development). He was the 4th President and Vice-Chancellor of Hong Kong Baptist University in 2010-2015.

Professor Chan’s research areas include the application of chiral catalysts in asymmetric syntheses and their industrial applications, development of pharmaceutical products and related processes, pharmaceutical and nutritional products based on Chinese medicines, new organic chemical process and their industrial applications, research and industrial applications of green sciences, novel material discovery and development, etc.

Elected as Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001, Professor Chan has received numerous prestigious awards including the National Natural Science Award of China (second class), Japan Society of Synthetic Chemistry Lectureship Award, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitation Fellowship, and Justice of the Peace, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

Professor Chan has enjoyed a very distinguished academic career, with seven books and more than 500 SCI journal papers published, as well as more than 11,000 citations on publications. In addition, he has 30 US patents and 51 Chinese patents granted, two series of technologies transferred to major global Corporations for commercial application, one permit granted for the human clinical trial of new drug, and commercialization of a major invention (This is a practical and commercially attractive technology for converting the ozone-depleting chemical carbon tetrachloride to commercially useful chloroform. The technology, which is already successfully commercialized in China, is important in keeping the chloroform industry alive and keeping the world a safer place to live in.).

Since 1994, he has secured a total of 16 General Research Fund Grants from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, and also a collaborative Areas of Excellence project on Molecular Technology for Drug Discovery and Synthesis which received funding of HK$64 million from the UGC.

Professor Chan also served as Founding Director, Shenzhen State Key Laboratory (Nurturing Platform) of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology; Founding Director of Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine; National Science and Technology Evaluation Expert; and was the Honorary Founding Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, and former Chairman of the Hong Kong Chemical Society.