Prof. CHEN Hao Named a 2023 Asian Young Scientist Fellow

Prof. Chen Hao became one of the 12 inaugural Asian Young Scientist Fellows selected from a large group of highly competitive nominees in Asian region. [Download Photo]

Assistant Professor CHEN Hao in the Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering was named one of the 12 inaugural recipients in the highly competitive Asian Young Scientist Fellowship 2023. The fellowship program is open to full-time faculty in academic and research institutions in China (Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), India, Japan, Korea and Singapore who are within 10 years post-completion of their terminal degree.

Selected from a large number of outstanding nominees in Asia, the 12 fellows are exceptional early-career scientists who have demonstrated their capacity to push the boundaries of scientific discovery and have displayed the potential to make significant contributions to their respective fields in the years to come. Four fellows are chosen in each of the three fields: life science; physical science; and mathematics and computer science, where Prof. Chen was selected.

Prof. Chen’s research focuses on trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI), medical image analysis, deep learning, and healthcare. He was acknowledged by the fellowship committee for his contribution to the development of the medical imaging and analysis techniques using machine learning, and is supported by the committee to explore in the direction of trustworthy AI technologies for medical imaging and analysis.

The Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (AYSF) is a privately funded research fellowship in the Asian region. It was launched in 2022 by founding members of the Future Science Prize*, also hailed as the “Nobel Prize of China”, to encourage and support young scientists in Asia to conduct creative and transformative research, as well as providing long-term support to talented scientists at the early stage of their careers. Furthermore, AYSF aims to create a community that promotes explorative thinking, cross-disciplinary collaboration, international exchanges, and mentorship.

Each fellow will receive US$100,000 over a two-year term to be spent on expenses supportive of their research. They will also enjoy opportunities to explore new avenues of research, gain exposure to diverse perspectives, and engage a network of international colleagues.

Coming from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore, the 12 fellows will gather in Hong Kong on October 16, 2023 at the Asian Young Scientist Fellowship Annual Conference to introduce their research work. They will also participate in workshops to discuss the forefront of scientific inquiry and global issues jointly with senior scientists of the international community.

Prof. Chen joined HKUST in 2021 and currently leads the Smart Lab focusing on trustworthy AI in healthcare and serves as an Associate Director in the Center for Medical Imaging and Analysis. He received his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2017 under the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme.

Over the past years, he won a number of premium awards including the Young Scientist Publication Impact Award 2019 by the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society and several Best Paper Awards. He also led teams to win more than 15 medical grand challenges. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers with Google Scholar Citations over 19,000 and holds a dozen of patents. As an active member in the international academic community, he serves as an associate editor of several top-tier journals including IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems and an area chair of multiple conferences including International MICCAI Conference.