Scaling Climate Innovation: From University Breakthroughs to Market-Ready Solutions

Dr. Zengyue Wang received his bachelor’s degree in 2015 and his doctorate in 2021 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research has focused on the development of safe and sustainable energy storage technologies.

In 2020, Dr. Wang founded Luquos Energy Limited in Hong Kong to commercialize safe, low-cost, and environmentally friendly sulfur-based flow battery technology for long-duration energy storage. Under his leadership, the company has successfully developed key materials and core battery components, completed pilot-scale production, and deployed multiple demonstration projects in Hong Kong and Mainland China.
Luquos Energy’s sulfur-based flow battery technology aims to provide a safe, scalable, and sustainable solution for large-scale renewable energy integration, industrial energy storage, and microgrid applications. The company is actively expanding its global collaboration network and exploring market opportunities in regions such as Hong Kong, Mainland China and the Middle East, supporting the transition toward a more resilient and low-carbon energy system.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

1. Accelerate the adoption of safe, affordable long-duration energy storage to support renewable energy, data centres and EV charging infrastructure in Hong Kong.
2. Turn more buildings, farms, campuses and industrial sites into green-energy hubs, making sustainability visible and practical for the public.
3. Strengthen Hong Kong’s role as a green technology hub by helping university innovations move faster from research to commercial deployment across Asia.

Prof. To NGAI is a Professor of Chemistry and Assistant Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He earned his B.Sc. (1999) and Ph.D. (2003) at CUHK, specializing in polymer interactions, before postdoctoral appointments at BASF (Germany) and the University of Minnesota. Returning to CUHK in 2006, he advanced from Research Assistant Professor to Full Professor in 2017. His research spans colloids, polymers, surface chemistry, and soft matter. Prof. Ngai has published over 270 papers, with more than 12,000 citations and an h-index of 58 (Google Scholar). His achievements include the CSJ Lectureship Award (2020) and the Paul J. Flory Research Prize (2023, Polychar World Forum, Nice). Since March 2026, he has served as Senior Editor of Langmuir (ACS).

Prof. NGAI is the Director and Chief Scientific Advisor of O-Spheres Limited, a start-up he founded in 2022 with support from the Innovation and Technology Commission’s “Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU)”. The company aims to commercialise technologies developed at CUHK, offering bespoke eco-solutions to address global environmental challenges through sustainability-driven innovation in materials science. O-Spheres was admitted to the HKSTP Incubation Programme in 2022 to accelerate product development and market entry.

In 2024, Professor Ngai founded BactOPack Limited, a pioneering venture dedicated to unlocking the potential of next-generation bio-based eco-materials for use in packaging and vegan leather. Through cutting-edge eco-technological research, BactOPack is redefining sustainable packaging with scalable, low-carbon materials designed to meet the demands of a greener future.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

1. Empower Sustainable Lifestyles: Promote widespread access to eco-friendly products in Hong Kong, helping individuals and communities make informed, sustainable choices.
2.  Expand Partnerships for Impact: Grow networks to accelerate real-world innovation, delivering wider environmental and societal benefits.

Professor Haiwei Luo is a marine microbiologist and evolutionary biologist at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has over a decade of research experience in microbial evolutionary biology and host-microbe interactions, and has published more than 70 research articles in leading journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications,

The ISME Journal, and Molecular Biology and Evolution. He has developed a patented probiotic that persists in marine invertebrates for the entire monitoring period (8 months) in a natural marine environment after a single application, conferring enhanced thermal tolerance to marine invertebrate during natural thermal events. The same probiotic technology improves growth and immune function in commercially valuable species including oysters and mussels, supporting both food security and sustainable aquaculture. Professor Luo is a co-founder of PersistBio Ltd., a Hong Kong company commercialising persistent probiotic solutions for marine conservation and aquaculture. His work demonstrates how marine microbiology and evolutionary biology can deliver tangible tools for climate resilience, biodiversity protection, and sustainable food production.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

1. Greater awareness and openness to marine probiotics: I hope to see Hong Kong’s conservation and aquaculture sectors become more receptive to innovative, science-based solutions that protect marine life and support sustainable food production.
2. Stronger bridge between research and commercial application: I want to see more university research products translated into real-world solutions through Hong Kong startups, supported by government schemes and industry partnerships, so that scientific breakthroughs reach the people and ecosystems that need them.
3. Recognition of aquaculture as a climate solution: I hope Hong Kong positions sustainable shellfish aquaculture as part of the city’s climate resilience and food security agenda, creating regulatory and financial pathways for innovation that reduces the sector’s environmental footprint while protecting livelihoods.

Provides Ng is an architectural designer and researcher investigating how digital technologies can foster more participatory and inclusive urban environments. Her work sits at the intersection of sustainability, artificial intelligence (AI), and civic engagement, with a focus on empowering diverse communities to shape future cities.

She is a Lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and completed her PhD research at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also the founder of the Digital Common(s) Foundation, an initiative that bridges sustainability, AI, and youth engagement by connecting policymakers, architects, students, and community members to collaboratively address climate equity and develop nature-based solutions through interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogue.

Over the past few years, the initiative has engaged more than 180 citizens and professionals, generating over 30 sustainable urban development proposals for its Idea Bank—a numerical database that transforms qualitative urban insights into machine-readable, BIM-compatible formats, turning participatory design into participatory intelligence. Their “nature-as-client” approach has received global recognition, including being named one of 15 Global Finalists at the Falling Walls Science Summit during Berlin Science Week 2025.

In addition to her academic and entrepreneurial work, Provides actively contributes to public policy and professional communities. She advises the Hong Kong government on cultural affairs, serves as a panel member for the Development Bureau and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), holds the position of Treasurer at the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA), and is an Associate Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA).

Her international research experience spans Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Russia. She is also a founding member of two international research collectives, Current.cam and REAr_, whose AI-driven explorations in cinematic technologies and bio-inspired design have been exhibited internationally, including at the Rijksmuseum Twenthe and the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

1. Education: Rebuilding interdisciplinary and intercultural literacy that reunites sustainability, AI, and the new generation.
2. Action: Driving individual behavioural change into community-led practice that becomes city-wide collective intelligence.
3. Talents: Funding a new generation of eco-entrepreneurs through design thinking and “nature-as-client” that shifts the foundation of our consumerist market.
4. Futurism: Combining real world problems with imaginative wild cards, we speculate how algorithmic logic and nature-based solutions can co-evolve, from Northern Metropolis to Island South.