Dr Ho’s primary research interests lie in material synthesis and nanotechnology, especially the use of environmental technology for air-pollution control. He is also interested in indoor air quality technology and environmental education.
As Principal Investigator, Dr Ho has secured approximately HK$2 million in external research funding from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since joining the Institute in August 2012. His first project, funded by the Early Career Scheme (ECS), was rated ‘excellent’ (with a full score of 5.0) and won an Early Career Award from the Research Grants Council (RGC). Only 29 of 359 early-career scholars funded by the RGC in 2013/14 received this prestigious award. Of 169 projects funded by the Graduate Research Fund/ECS in the Physical Sciences category in 2013/14, Dr Ho’s project on environmental purification received the second largest grant (HK$1.17 million).
Dr Ho is a prolific researcher. During his 2.5 years at the Institute, he has published articles in 30 leading international journals, with 14 publications as corresponding author or first author. Half of these articles ranked within the top 10% of their respective disciplines, such as five articles in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, which ranked 1st in the Environmental Engineering category, and 90% ranked within the top 30% of their respective disciplines. Dr Ho’s publications have been cited by peers more than 5,500 times since 2001, with an average of 400 citations per year and 94 citations per item. His h-index is 29. He was appointed Visiting Professor by the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2014, and works as editor and guest editor for international journals listed in the Science Citation Index.
Dr Ho’s research has been put into practice in industrial settings. He has made important technological breakthroughs in the development of highly efficient and multifunctional photocatalytic nanomaterials for environmental purification. Unlike traditional materials, the photocatalyst proposed by Dr Ho has high solar efficiency and can thus be commercialized. The novel technologies developed from his research have been granted more than 10 patents in the US, Europe, China and Hong Kong. His research group is currently undertaking two market-driven projects in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and industrial partners to demonstrate the success of novel nanotechnologies in environmental remediation, with significant benefits for the global community.
