Turning Greenhouse Gas Into Gold: The Chemistry Lecture That Wowed FLASS

On 27 April 2026, FLASS held the second Faculty Postgraduate Seminar (FPS) for the 2025/26 academic year. Guest speaker Professor Marc Robert, a top 1% most cited scientist from Sorbonne University, France, gave an inspiring lecture on how molecular electrochemistry can be applied to address the problem of rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the atmosphere. His lecture was followed by poster presentations from nine research postgraduate (RPg) students across four departments within FLASS. In the afternoon, five RPg students gave oral presentations of their research findings, with prizes awarded for the best poster and oral presentations.

Professor Li Wai-keung, then Dean of FLASS and Research Chair Professor of Data Science, gave the opening remarks for the whole-day seminar (Note 1). He highlighted that the FPS is an important platform for RPg students, both to showcase their research progress and discoveries and to network and build interdisciplinary collaborations. Professor Daniel Chow Hung-kay, Associate Dean (Research & Postgraduate Studies) and moderator of the seminar, thanked Professor Li for his support of the seminar over the years. Professor Chow stressed that the Faculty encourages postgraduate students, whether pursuing Doctor of Education studies or research programmes, to apply for funding opportunities to attend overseas and local academic conferences and related events.

The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) is widely believed to be the principal driver of global temperature increase. To reduce rising CO₂ concentrations and combat climate change, scientists have been studying methods to capture existing or newly created CO₂ emissions, and to further convert, store, or reuse them. Professor Marc Robert’s keynote lecture for the Faculty Postgraduate Seminar addressed how molecular electrochemistry can be used to convert atmospheric CO₂ into usable fuel.

He began his talk by explaining how electron-transfer processes at atomic level determine which products are formed during CO₂ reduction, and the value of these products. Drawing on his own research, Professor Robert explained how molecular catalysts, such as structurally modified metal porphyrin complexes, can be used under electro- and photocatalytic conditions to produce different CO2-reduction products, including carbon monoxide, formic acid, and methane. He said these catalytic reactions can be harnessed to generate chemical fuels and valuable compounds, by incorporating the molecular catalysts into photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) and feeding their products into other chemical processes.

After Professor Robert’s lecture, nine RPg students presented their PhD research projects, spanning health education, STEM education, financial literacy, environmental management, and AI. The presenters used posters featuring diagrams, charts, and bullet points to answer questions from panel judges, fellow PhD students, and other faculty members. Mr Richard Yeung Chung-yiu’s presentation, titled “Tracing Epistemic Synergy in a GenAI-Supported Drone STEM Curriculum”, won the Best Poster Presentation award.

In the afternoon session, five students gave oral presentations of their research, spanning environmental science, education policy, nutrition studies, econometrics, and STEM education. Mr Yeung won the Best Speaker award for his talk, “Opening the Blackbox of STEM Learning: Tracing Epistemic Ascent with ENA in a Simulation Mediated Drone Curriculum”. Both his poster and oral presentations were based on his PhD research investigating how drone piloting activities could be used to enhance STEM education for secondary school students.

“Drone piloting involves interdisciplinary knowledge spanning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). My study, which involved 227 secondary school students, used GenAI to simulate twelve drone piloting tasks with different objectives, to train participants’ knowledge in mathematics, physics, and information technology. By examining students’ navigation performance, the study used Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to trace their acquisition of integrated STEM knowledge,” said Mr Yeung.

Mr Yeung’s research findings suggest that within a hybrid ecology of simulation, physical practice, and reflection, simulation-mediated and drone-based STEM learning activities help students develop conceptual, procedural, higher-order, and metacognitive skills in a coordinated way. “My study showed that participants progressed from understanding concrete mechanisms and procedures to grasping more abstract, interdisciplinary and integrated STEM reasoning over time,” said the PhD candidate of the Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES). (Note 2)

Professor Daniel Chow Hung-kay praised the efforts of all participants in the poster and oral presentations. “The Faculty remains committed to inviting renowned researchers in different fields to share their latest findings at the biannual Faculty Postgraduate Seminar. RPg students are encouraged to attend the seminar, join presentation sessions, and present their work. These will hone their presentation and communication skills, sharpen their thinking about their research, and keep them up to date with the latest focuses of the international academic circle,” Professor Chow said.

To encourage RPg students to present their research at the seminar, winners of the poster and oral presentations receive an award worth HK$5,000 to support future conference attendance or research-related activities.

Please read the related story about Mr Richard Yeung Chung-yiu’s research work. 

Note 1: Professor Li Wai-keung has stepped down from the Deanship in May 2026.

Note 2: Mr Richard Yeung submitted his PhD dissertation in March and passed his viva in June 2026.

Poster Presentation:

Oral Presentation: