‘Father of graphene’ Andre Geim leaves Britain for chair professorship at HKU
British Nobel laureate who has kept close ties with Chinese researchers says he is drawn to Hong Kong’s distinctive East-West synergy
Andre Geim, the 67-year-old Nobel Prize-winning physicist known in China as the “father of graphene”, will join the University of Hong Kong as a chair professor in April, according to the university.
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Geim said he was drawn to Hong Kong’s distinctive East-West synergy and world-class infrastructure.
“HKU’s forward-looking approach to interdisciplinary research and its commitment to supporting bold ideas creates the conditions in which great science happens,” the university quoted him as saying in a statement on Wednesday.
“I’m excited to collaborate with outstanding colleagues here and to contribute to discoveries that will matter globally.”
A vocal advocate of international scientific collaboration, Geim has maintained close ties with Chinese researchers and has been a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2017.
In an interview in October with MIT Technology Review China in Shanghai, Geim said his first PhD student in Manchester was from China. Jiang Da, now a researcher at Zhejiang University of Technology, was tasked with making graphite as thin as possible.