Prof Che Chi Ming, Founding Member of ASHK and Chair Professor and Zhou Guangzhao Professorship in Natural Sciences at the Department of Chemistry of Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong has received the First Class Award of 2019 Shenzhen Science and Technology Prize from the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (SZSTIC).
Prof Chi-Ming Che received BSc (1978) and PhD (1982) degrees from The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Following research studies at the California Institute of Technology from 1980 to 1983, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at HKU in 1983 and was promoted in 1992 to a Chair Professor. From 1999 -2016, he was appointed Dr. Hui Wai Haan Chair of Chemistry at HKU. Since April 2016, he has been appointed to Zhou Guangzhao Professor in Natural Sciences. He is the director of Partner State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry and HKU-CAS Joint Laboratory on New Materials. Prof. Che is a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Associate of National Academy of Sciences, USA. He has received the First Class Prize of the State Natural Science Award of China and the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize. He was the winner of Leader of the Year (Education/Research Category) in 2007, and he was also awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong SAR Government because of his continuous contribution to the scientific research in Hong Kong. He has a current H-index of 97 and is listed as one of the ISI Highly Cited Researchers. Over 140 Ph.D. students have successfully completed their studies under his supervision. He has been awarded a number of lectureships, including the Seaborg Lectureship at the University of California at Berkeley, Julia S. and Edward C. Lee Lectureship at University of Chicago and Davison Lectureship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Prof Che has made inspiring contributions in virtually all areas of Chemistry. He pioneered the chemistry of d8 and d10 metal complexes including their excited state chemistry and closed shell metal-metal interactions of d8 and d10 metal ions, and is a leading figure in developing reactive metal-ligand multiple bonded complexes for practical atom and group transfer/insertion reactions and for selective C–H bond functionalization with practical interest in organic synthesis. He has made efforts to develop Translational and Interdisciplinary Research in the areas of Medicines and New Materials. He has made original and important contributions to the development of inorganic medicines by combining coordination chemistry, proteomics, and molecular biology. Prof Che’s team has invented physiologically stable gold(III) and platinum(II) compounds which are highly potent and can be used for treatment of drug resistant cancers; the efficacy of these anti-cancer gold(III) and platinum(II) complexes have been confirmed by extensive in vivo animal studies, and the mode of anti-cancer mechanism has been elucidated by proteomics, cDNA array, and biochemistry experiments. He is also interested in Tradition Chinese Medicines, the chemical biology of bioactive natural products and the quest of non-toxic natural compounds from Tradition Chinese Medicines for cancer treatment. Prof Che is a world leader in OLED Materials. His team has successfully developed practical Platinum(II) Emitters which are comparable if not superior in performances to the World best Iridium(III) Phosphors.
The Shenzhen Science and Technology Award Prize is established by the Shenzhen Municipal Government to encourage technological innovation and promote technological development in the city.