image: Professor Charles Xu Chunbao (Courtesy City University of Hong Kong)
Credit: City University of Hong Kong
HONG KONG (9 January 2024) — In recognition of his research and academic achievements in chemical and thermal process engineering and technical chemistry, Professor Charles Chunbao Xu of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has been awarded the Humboldt Research Award 2023 from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
The award is one of the highest recognitions in Germany for researchers living and working outside Germany.
The Humboldt Research Award is granted annually to up to 100 internationally renowned researchers in all disciplines from abroad in recognition of their accomplishments in research and teaching. The Foundation maintains a network of over 30,000 Humboldt Foundation sponsorship recipients in more than 140 countries, including 61 Nobel Prize winners.
Professor Xu of the School of Energy and Environment at CityU specialises in biorefinery for biomass and biowastes valorisation and possesses world-leading expertise in research, innovations and industrial applications for high-value bioproducts from renewable resources, particularly in the development of biofuels and bio-based chemicals and materials from forestry and agricultural residues and biowaste.
“At CityU, we are working on the resourceful utilisation of municipal organic solid waste, such as food waste, sewage sludge, yard waste and plastic waste for the production of high value-added products, including sustainable aviation fuels, green hydrogen, and bio-based chemicals and materials,” said Professor Xu, who collaborates with colleagues in Western University, Canada.
Winning the award will enable Professor Xu to conduct research in collaboration with his colleagues in Germany. “I am very excited about the opportunity to collaborate with German universities and institutes, in particular with Professor Marcus Rose at Technische Universität Darmstadt, and to foster scientific cooperation between CityU and research institutions in Germany,” he said.