HKUST Professor the First Asian to Head 50-year-old Air Pollution Journal

Professor Chak Chan of HKUST has become the first Asian to be appointed Editor-in-chief of a leading academic journal on air pollution in its 50-year history.

In his new capacity as Editor-in-chief of Atmospheric Environment, Prof Chan will be in charge of the Journal’s China Office in HKUST and join hands with two other editors, Prof P Brimblecombe of UK’s University of East Anglia and Dr H B Singh of USA’s NASA Ames Research Centre in managing the manuscripts for the Journal.

Prof Chan, who is Associate Head of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at HKUST, said, “It is an exciting challenge to be Editor-in-chief of a leading academic journal on such an important area as Atmospheric Environment and which commands a wide readership across the globe.

“Because of the rapid population growth and the expansion of the middle class, air pollution has received unprecedented attention worldwide. Researches in air pollution, especially in Asia, have been growing very rapidly.

“I will do my best to uphold the tradition and standards of the Journal and contribute to an important area of the Environment through the promotion of high quality research.”

Prof Chan joined HKUST in 1992 shortly after he earned his doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from USA’s California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He received in 2005 the Asian Young Aerosol Scientist Award in recognition of the field and laboratory investigations of thermodynamics and hygroscopic properties of atmospheric aerosols. He was also the winner of HKUST’s Top Ten Lecturers Award in 1999.

As a seasoned researcher focusing on aerosol chemistry and air pollution, Prof Chan co-developed with HKUST Adjunct Professor Ming Fang the Mobile Air Monitoring Platform (MAP) in 2000, a vehicle that characterizes air pollutants on the road in real time as it travels. Unlike existing fixed air monitoring stations, MAP makes air quality monitoring anywhere accessible by road.

Hailed as “an international academic journal that places air pollution in a regional context”, Atmospheric Environment was established in 1959 as an Elsevier journal focusing on air pollution and its applications. Some of the most respectable air-pollution experts have served the Journal as its Editor-in-chief, including “the father of air-pollution control”, US National Medal of Science recipient Prof Arie Jan Haagen-Smit. With three offices respectively in the States, UK and China, it publishes 40 issues per year. In 2008 it has published over 700 papers of more than 9000 pages.

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Email:mccheung@ust.hk