About Franco Leung
Prof. Dr. Franco King-Chi LEUNG (梁敬池教授)
Associate Professor, Research Team Leader
Address: Rm Y802, 11, Yuk Choi Rd, Hung Hom,Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852-34008663 (Office)
E-mail: kingchifranco.leung@polyu.edu.hk
Dept. Page (Link)
PolyU Researcher
ORCID: 0000-0003-0895-9307
Scopus Author ID: 56242779500
ResearcherID: M-3860-2016
Google Scholar
Researchgate Profile
Academic Career:
(A) Current Academic Positions:
Jul 2025 – Present:
Associate Professor; Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology; PolyU (Link)
Sep 2025 – Present:
Deputy Chairman; Departmental Outreach Committee; Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology; PolyU
Sep 2025 – Present:
RPg Program Leader; Departmental Research Committee; Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology; PolyU
Sep 2022 – Present:
RPg Coordinator in Chemistry Discipline; Departmental Research Committee; Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology; PolyU
(B) Current Research Projects Positions:
Mar 2023 – Present:
Member; Research Institute for Future Food; PolyU (Link)
Oct 2021 – Present:
Member; Research Centre for Chinese Medicine Innovation; PolyU (Link)
Aug 2021 – Present:
Project Leader; Centre for Eye and Vision Research (CEVR PolyU); Hong Kong Science Park (Link)
(C) Previous Academic Positions Held:
Jun 2019 – Jun 2025:
Assistant Professor; Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology; PolyU (Link)
Aug 2019 – Jun 2025:
Member; State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery; PolyU
Oct 2017 – Jun 2019:
Croucher Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow; University of Groningen
Apr 2017 – Oct 2017:
Postdoctoral Fellow; University of Groningen
Awards and Honours:
2025:
- ABCT Excellent Award 2025 (Research Output) - Chemistry, PolyU (HK)
2024:
- ABCT Excellent Award 2024 (Teaching), PolyU (HK)(Link)
- ABCT Excellent Award 2024 (Research Output) - Chemistry, PolyU (HK)(Link)
- Young Investigator Award; Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry (Germany)(Link)
2023:
- Outstanding Young Alumni Award of Faculty of Science 2023; PolyU (HK)(Link) (FS)
- Outstanding Young Alumni Award of Department of ABCT 2023; PolyU (HK)(Link) (ABCT)
- Rising Stars in Polymer Science 2023; Polymer Journal, Springer Nature (Link)
2022:
- PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award 2022; PolyU (HK)(RIO)(ABCT)
2021:
- Croucher Innovation Award; The Croucher Foundation (HK)(Link)
2017 – 2019:
- Croucher Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow; The Croucher Foundation (HK)(Link)
2014 – 2017:
- International Program Associate (Ph.D. Scholarship); RIKEN (Japan)
Education Background:
Oct 2017 – Jun 2019:
Croucher Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow; University of Groningen;
Supervisor: Prof. Ben L. Feringa
Apr 2017 – Oct 2017:
Postdoctoral Fellow; University of Groningen;
Supervisor: Prof. Ben L. Feringa
Jul 2016 – Aug 2016:
Exchange Ph.D. Student; University of Groningen;
Supervisor: Prof. Ben L. Feringa
Apr 2014 – Mar 2017:
Ph.D. in Electronic Chemistry; Tokyo Institute of Technology;
Supervisors: Prof. Takanori Fukushima and Dr. Yoichi M.A. Yamada
Jul 2013 – Mar 2014:
Research Assistant; PolyU;
Supervisor: Dr. Man Kin Wong
Jul 2011 – Jun 2013:
M.Phil. in Chemical Technology; PolyU;
Supervisor: Dr. Man Kin Wong
Sept 2007 – Jun 2011:
B.Sc. (First Class Hon.) in Chemical Technology; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)
Funded External Research Grants:
2023
- Research Matching Grant Scheme (PI, Dec 2023, RGC)
- NSFC General Program (PI, Aug 2023, NSFC) (RIO)
2022
- Research Matching Grant Scheme (PI, Dec 2022, RGC)
- 2022/2023 Collaborative Research Fund (Co-I, Jun 2022, RGC)
- 2022/2023 General Research Fund (PI, Jun 2022, RGC)
2021
- Research Matching Grant Scheme (PI, Aug 2021, RGC)
- 2021/2022 General Research Fund (PI, Jun 2021, RGC)
- 2021 Croucher Innovation Award (PI, May 2021, Croucher Foundation)
2020
- 2020/2021 Early Career Scheme (PI, Jun 2020, RGC)
- NSFC for Young Scholar (PI, Apr 2020, NSFC)
2019
- Croucher Startup Fund (PI, Aug 2019, Croucher Foundation)
- Research Matching Grant Scheme (PI, Aug 2019, RGC)
Funded PolyU Research Grants:
- PolyU RiFood Interdisciplinary Project Fund (PI, Oct 2025)
- PolyU ABCT Internal Fund (PI, Jun 2025)
- PolyU ABCT Internal Fund (PI, May 2025)
- PolyU RiFood Funding Support (PI, Nov 2024)
- PolyU Large Equipment Fund (SKL, BioAFM) (Co-PI, Mar 2023)
- PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (PI, July 2022)
- SKL Funding Support (PI, Aug 2019)
- Startup Fund (PI, July 2019)
Professional Services:
Grant Reviewer
- National Natural Science Foundation of China, Young Scholar C (2025)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Program (2024)
- National Science Centre Poland (2022)
- Austrian Science Fund (2021)
Journal Reviewer
- Precision Chem. (Jan, Feb 2025), Molecules (Feb 2025), Angew. Chemie. (Feb 2025), ChemPhotoChem (Feb, Apr 2025), Org. Bio. Chem. (May 2025), Nat. Commun. (May, Sep 2025), J. Hetero. Cyclic (May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Oct 2025), J. Photochem. Photobio. C (Sep, Oct 2025), J. Phys. Chem. (Sep 2025), Inorg. Chem. Front. (Oct, Nov 2025), Chem. Sci. (Nov 2025), Chin. Chem. Lett. (Nov 2025).
- J. Mol. Liq. (Mar 2024), Nat. Rev. Chem (Jun 2024), HKIE Transactions (Jun 2024), J. Mol. Liq. (Jul 2024), Dyes. Pigm. (Sep 2024), ChemPhotoChem (Nov 2024), Chem (Nov 2024).
- Langmuir (May, July 2023), DDTR (Aug 2023), ACS App. Polym. Mater. (Aug 2023), Small (Oct 2023).
- Angew. Chemie. (2022), Adv. Healthc. Mater. (2022), Langmuir (2022), Macromol. Rapid Commun. (2022), DDTR (Apr, Aug 2022), Soft Matter (Oct, Nov 2022).
- Small (2021), Chem. Commun. (Jan, Apr 2021), Actuator (2021)
- J. Mater. Chem. C (2020), ACS Omega (2020).
- Review Editor Frontiers in Chemistry.
Alumni Event
- Tokyo Institute of Technology Alumni Ambassador (2023) (Link) (Video)
- PolyU Alumni Achievement (2022) (Link)
Croucher Symposium in Hong Kong
- Organizing Committee Member (2024) (Link)
- Organizing Committee Member (2023) (Link)
Symposium on Chemistry Postgraduate Research in Hong Kong
- Organizing Committee Chairman (2022) (Link)
- Institute Representative (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Local High School Event
- S.T. Yau High School Science Award (Chemistry Assessment Panel, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)