The IPO Best Research Award was established in 2011 with the support of the Executive Vice-President & Provost’s Office to recognize outstanding achievements by research postgraduate students who made the most original and influential research achievements outcome from their study that has been carried out mainly at HKUST.  The key objective of the Award is to foster the overall quality of research education in the University. 

The award presentation ceremony for 2016/17 was held on 19 April 2017. The Award has two categories – the PhD and the MPhil category. Among the nominations in the PhD category, Mr CHU Yangxi (fourth-year PhD student of Environmental Science, Policy and Management program (ESPM)) was the recipient of the first prize with the research topic of “Uptake of amines by ammonium sulfate - organic mixed particles”.  He is now doing an overseas attachment at The University of British Columbia at Vancouver, Canada, and sent a video to express thanks and shared his research process. 

For the MPhil category, Mr. LI Yugen (Class of 2016, MPhil in ESPM) won the first prize with the research topic of “Chemical analysis of atmospheric aerosols”.

The Selection Committee, comprising Prof. Jianping GAN (Chair), Prof. Henry LAM (Division of Biomedical Engineering) and Prof. Stanley LAU (Division of Environment), assessed candidates on the research impact and output on evidence-based criteria based on candidates’ work done at HKUST.