Prof. ZHU Furong

Professor
Department of Physics

Throughout his illustrious career, Prof. Zhu Furong has made significant contributions in the realms of high-performance organic electronic devices. His achievements have been most notable in his pioneering efforts in organic photodetectors (OPDs) for multispectral sensing and visible blind near infrared (NIR) sensor technologies for fast and portable detection. In addition to publishing in high-impact international journals, Prof. Zhu has led projects to secure external competitive grants and has successfully translated NIR technologies to the commercial sector.

Prof. Zhu’s influence in the field is exemplified by his recognition as one of the world’s top 2% most-cited scholars by Stanford University. His rich portfolio of works includes more than 130 research papers in top-tier journals including “Nature Communications”, “Science Advances” and “Advanced Materials”, among others. Furthermore, over the past five years he has obtained more than HK$11 million in external research grants, including for projects in the General Research Fund, National Natural Science Foundation of China / Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme, and Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission.

Under his exceptional leadership, Prof. Zhu’s team has developed novel multi-mode OPDs for detecting light in both visible and NIR ranges without interference, as well as light with different polarisation statuses without the need for filters. With patents granted in China, Japan and the United States, these advancements resulted in high-performance multi-mode photodetection technologies named “Multi-mode Photodetectors and Methods of Fabricating the Same”.

With their immense industrial application potentials in food and Chinese medicinal material authentication and smart agriculture, these technologies received critical acclaim internationally and regionally. These include securing the Gold Medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, an Excellence Award in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area High-value Patent Portfolio Layout Competition in 2023, as well as the Gold Medal in the 7th China (Shanghai) International Invention and Innovation Exhibition in 2024.

Subsequently, these technologies are translated into commercial use by Crimson Vision Limited, a spin-off company established by Prof. Zhu. An affordable handheld device that measures fruit quality in a reliable and non-invasive manner, the technology helps farmers to improve cultivation methods and quality control. Through pilot programmes in three farms, it has enabled a high-end Hong Kong retailer to confirm the provenance of its premium imported produce.

Prof. Zhu is currently serving at HKBU as the Director of the Research Centre of Excellence for Organic Electronics and the Institute of Advanced Materials. In his concurrent leadership roles, he has fostered numerous interdisciplinary collaborative projects in materials synthesis, materials engineering, photo-physics and device integration. These projects have secured external competitive grants with a total funding of over HK$30 million. His research publications been cited in more than 10,000 times. The research team has filed 6 patent applications over the past five years.

With the impressive track record in innovating multi-mode OPDs and NIR detection technologies, Prof. Zhu has emerged as a remarkable scholar with superb leadership in high-impact and translatable projects. He has certainly earned his place as a recipient of the President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Scholarly Work.