Event: Nerd Nite Hong Kong: Edition #13
Date: 28th May 2018
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Mezcalito; 27/F, 18 On Lan St, Central.
Entry Fee: Free! Thanks to the support provided by the venue! You just got to buy your own drinks!

Speaker 1: Dr. Jiandong Huang
Topic: What does synthetic biology have to do with us?
Quick Nerdisms: What is synthetic biology? What does synthetic biology have to do with us? I will use some examples to describe this frontier science.
Nerd Cred: Prof. Huang earned his BS degree from Fudan University, Shanghai and went to the US through the CUSBEA program to pursue his PhD study in transcriptional regulation during fruit fly embryonic pattern formation. He earned his PhD degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. Thereafter, Prof. Huang received his postdoctoral training in mouse genetics at National Cancer Institute, NIH in the USA. During this period, Prof. Huang was the first to report that the two major intracellular transportation systems of mammalian cells, the microtubule- and actin-filament-based system directly interact with each other through their motor proteins, kinesin and myosin. After returning to China, he established his own laboratory at the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Huang is now the L & T Charitable Foundation Professor in Biomedical Sciences in the School of Biomedical Sciences, the University of Hong Kong.
Prof. Huang focused his research work on synthetic biology. He has provided experimental evidence revealing the mechanism of a powerful DNA engineering technology, recombineering and improved its efficiency in both E. coli and mammalian cells. He has applied this technique to genomic studies and developed more efficient methods in DNA and chromosome engineering. Since 2008, he began to pursue synthetic biology studies focus on vaccine development and cancer therapy. Prof. Huang has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers in Science, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotech., PNSA, PRL, Journal of Controlled Release, Diabetes, Nucleic Acids Research, Genes & Development, and other prestigious journals.
Speaker 2: Mr. Rocky Cheung
Topic: The modernisation of anatomy
Quick Nerdisms: Dark history of anatomy? Confucianism? Cadaveric dissection? You may be wondering how I am going to link all these in a 15minute presentation. What you do not know is that as a story-teller, I am going to “dissect” the rich history of anatomy layer by layer deep into its bare bone. Join me on this voyage to the heart of it all.
Nerd Cred: Rocky Cheung is a first year PhD student at the University of Hong Kong. He received a bachelor’s degree in Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Liverpool and a master’s degree in Human Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh. His research interest is in innovative pedagogies in human anatomy education, particularly with 3D printing. He also helps out with gross anatomy teaching at the University of Hong Kong as a teaching assistant.
Speaker 3: Dr. Tjonnie Li
Topic: Gravitational Waves: A New Window on the Universe
Quick Nerdisms: Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, published in 1916, gave us a radically new way of understanding how space, time and gravity are related. His theory quickly became science’s best tool for understanding elusive phenomena such as black holes, the expansion of the Universe and the Big Bang.
The last prediction stemming from general relativity, the existence of ripples in the fabric of spacetime better known as gravitational waves, was finally confirmed in 2015. We will explore what gravitational waves are, and why they promise to revolutionise our understanding of the Universe.
Nerd Cred: Professor Tjonnie Li studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and received his PhD from the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics. He then spent two years conducting research at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2015. He was involved in the first detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and his awards include the 2016 Gruber Prize in Cosmology; the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics; and the 2013 Stefano Braccini Thesis Prize.