On the afternoon of July 26, 2024, at the invitation of Professor Yufei Zhao of College of Chemistry, Professor Ming Hong Wong of the Education University of Hong Kong was invited to give a report entitled “Higher plants, microbes, and organic amendments for remediating metal-contaminated sites”.The report was chaired by Professor Zhao and attended by teachers and students from related research groups.
In this report, Professor Wong discussed in depth the principles and research progress of plants, microbes and organics for metal-contaminated sites, and detailed the key steps of phytoremediation, the physical and chemical properties of contaminated sites, the selection of suitable plant populations, the formation of symbiotic relationships, and the regulation of interactions between organics and biological organisms. At the same time, Professor Wong also introduced and shared the platform of higher education, postgraduate training and academic research in Hong Kong. The participants benefited greatly from Professor Huang's informative and interesting presentation. After the meeting, the participating teachers and students actively asked questions and made speeches, and had in-depth discussions with Professor Wong on soil remediation, heavy metal pollution control and other related issues.
Reporter's introduction:
Professor Wong is a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Chang Jiang Chair Professor of the Ministry of Education, China. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of “Environmental Geochemistry and Health” (Springer Nature) for 20 years (2002-2023). Professor Wong was the Coordinator of Central and North-East Asia of “Regionally Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances” and a Panel Member (of 3 experts) of “Chemicals Management Issues of Developing Countries and Countries with Economies in Transition”, sponsored by UNEP/GEF, during 2001-2003 and 2010-2012, respectively. His research areas included “Environmental toxicology”; “Ecological restoration”; and “Resource reuse”. He has published over 850 SCI papers. In addition to his PhD (Durham), he was awarded two higher Doctoral Degrees based on published papers in 1992 and 2004: DSc (Durham) and DSc (Strathclyde). He was awarded an Honorary DSc from the Southern Federal University, Russia, on 31 May 2024, in recognition of his involvement in the Mega Project on Bioremediation of Polluted Ecosystems sponsored by the Russian Government. Professor Wong is ranked 6th for 3 years and 8th for 1 year (career-long ranking) and is listed as the top Chinese scientist in Environmental Science according to the World’s Top 2% Scientists (Stanford University, 2020-2023). According to Research.com's Best Researchers in Various Disciplines (2023,2024), he ranked No.1 in China under Environmental Science.