Faculty and Staff
 


Wenxiong WANG (PhD, State University of New York, Stony Brook, USA)
Director of Coastal Marine Laboratory (CML); Chair Professor and EHS Program Director, Department of Ocean Science (OCES)

Tel: 2358-7346(OCES)/2358-8395(CML)
Email: wwang@ust.hk

Research Interests:

Metal biogeochemistry and ecotoxicology; Marine pollution; Physiological ecology of aquatic organisms; and Harmful algal bloom.

The overall research program in Prof. Wang's group is the understanding of trace metal-biota interaction in the aquatic environments (both marine and freshwater systems). Many trace metals are biologically essential but can be toxic at elevated concentrations. The research emphasizes multidisciplinary studies, including ecotoxicology, physiology, biogeochemistry, environmental sciences, biological and chemical oceanography, and mathematical modeling. The research is herein categorized into different fields, each with several representative publications from the lab in recent years.


Pei-Yuan QIAN (PhD, University of Alberta, Canada)
Acting Head/David von Hansemann Professor of Science/Chair Professor, Department of Ocean Science (OCES)

Tel: 2358-7331 (OCES)
Email: boqianpy@ust.hk

Research Interests:

Marine benthic ecology; reproductive biology and larval ecology of marine invertebrates; marine natural products, ecotoxicology, and antifouling. Prof. Qian's current research is focused on:

(i) environmental factors affecting reproductive strategies and larval biology of marine invertebrates;
(ii) marine natural products;
(iii) marine fouling and antifouling;
(iv) improvement of mariculture;
(v) Environmental Impact Assessment.

Hongbin LIU(PhD, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA)
Professor and PG Programme Coordinator, Department of Ocean Science (OCES)

Tel: 2358-7341(OCES)
Email: liuhb@ust.hk

Research Interests:

One of the significant discoveries in oceanic microbial ecology in recent decades was the realization of the importance of picophytoplankton, especially the discovery of picocyanobacteria Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, and their role in oceanic primary production. We now know that picophytoplankton, including Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and pico-sized eukaryotic algae, contribute substantially to both phytoplankton biomass and production in marine ecosystems. In the subtropical oceanic waters, they usually account for more than half of the chlorophyll and carbon biomass throughout the year.

In the past decade, my research activities have been focused on the mechanisms that control the population dynamics and community structure of the picoplankton in various oceanic environments, particularly in the following two directions: 1) Factors that control picoplankton growth physiology and photosynthetic efficiency; 2) Sources and rates of picoplankton mortality and microbial food web dynamics.

Stanley CK LAU (PhD, HKUST)
Associate Professor and UG Programme Coordinator, Department of Ocean Science (OCES) Associate Professor, Division of Life Science (LIFS) and Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR)

Tel: 2358-7329(OCES)
Email: scklau@ust.hk

Research Interests:

  1. Environmental microbiology
  2. Microbial source tracking strategy for marine pollution monitoring
  3. Marine microbial metagenomics and transcriptomic

Qinglu ZENG (PhD, State University of NewYork at Albany)
Associate Professor, Department of Ocean Science (OCES)

Tel: 2358-8701 (OCES)
Email: zeng@ust.hk

Research Interests:

My overarching interest in science is the role of bacteria and their viruses in marine ecological processes and how they adapt to the environment through genomic coevolution. Microorganisms constitute more than 90% of the living biomass in the sea and microbial communities are important for the nutrient and energy cycles in the world's oceans. Far from being mere parasites, marine viruses play crucial roles in shaping their bacterial host¡¦s genomes and population dynamics. As such, they are major players in the global geochemical and ecological processes. Our lab focuses on the unicellular cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, which is the most abundant photosynthetic organism on Earth. We use phages (cyanophages) that infect Prochlorococcus as a model system to study how marine viruses use the host metabolic and regulatory networks to adapt to various environmental stresses and their role in the marine ecosystem.

Yin Ki TAM(PhD, National Taiwan Ocean University)
Technician, Coastal Marine Laboratory

Tel: 2358-8402
Email: boyktam@ust.hk