Wu Yilin, Professor of the Department of Physics, has been awarded the Xplorer Prize 2023 by Tencent Foundation in the field of advanced interdisciplinary studies, one of the two Hong Kong-based scholars to receive the honour this year.

Professor Wu’s research interests focus on the physics of living matter and quantitative biology, including biological self-organisation, collective behaviour and bacterial motility. His winning research focuses on the self-organisation and emergent mechanics of living active matter. Professor Wu aims to establish a series of novel physical mechanisms for spatiotemporal ordering in living matter, and to discover design principles of autonomous living materials with emerging mechanical functionalities for biomedicine and soft robotics.

Professor Wu said: “With support from the Xplorer Prize, we will seek to understand one of the mysteries of life: how order spontaneously emerges in living systems. I am grateful to my lab members past and present for boldly crossing the boundaries among disciplines and joining in my effort. We have also been fortunate to benefit from the inclusive and supportive academic culture of CUHK.”

The Xplorer Prize is a merit-based public-interest award evaluated by prominent scientists and funded by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation set up by Tencent. It is also one of the most generous talent funding programmes for young scientists in China. Focusing on basic sciences and frontier technologies, the Xplorer Prize is awarded to up to 50 young scientists every year, with each recipient receiving a no-strings-attached fund totalling RMB 3 million over a five-year period to further their research.