Breakthrough Prize to Daya Bay experts

The 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, valued at USD $3 million, is awarded to five teams studying neutrino physics.  One of the teams is Daya Bay experiment led by Dr Yifang Wang and Professor Kam Biu Luk. Professor Luk is our alumnus in the Department of Physics (BSc 1976). He has been appointed as the Hung Hing Ying Distinguished Visiting Professor in Science and Technology of HKU since 2011. During his tenure at HKU, Professor Luk gave public lectures in the Faculty of Science and supervised students participating in the Daya Bay experiment. His international prominence helped foster academic and research collaboration within the Unvieristy and with other institutions globally. Other team members from HKU  include Drs Jason Pun and John Leung who supported the Daya Bay experiment by setting up the Aberdeen Tunnel Laboratory and conducting experiments there.

Professor Luk gave an acceptance remarks, "I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to study the basic constituents of nature and their interactions. It is always a joy to reveal the magic of nature. I was thrilled with the discovery of the third kind of neutrino oscillation in 2012. The tremendous success of the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment is founded on the dedication, persistence, and diverse talent of many individuals. I am extremely grateful that the remarkable accomplishment of my colleagues is being recognized."

"I have had the privilege to learn from and work with many bright minds throughout my career. Among them, I have benefitted a lot from the support, guidance and inspiration of Kevin MacKeown, Ken Heller, Chuck Brown, John Rutherford, Leon Lederman, James Bjorken, Sandip Pakvasa, Jen-Chieh Peng, Tsung-Dao Lee, and Herb Steiner. My special thank goes to Tom Devlin, my PhD advisor, who gave me the freedom and encouragement to explore the unknown. Last but not least, I express my deepest gratitude to my mother, my siblings, my wife Po-Ling, my children Chung-Hay and Ming-Hay for their continuous unconditional support that enables me to pursue my dreams."

The Breakthrough Prize is a very prestigious award donated by Russian technological entrepreneur Yuri Milner and his wife together with Sergey Brin (founder of Google), Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) and Anne Wojcicki (founder of 23andMe).