WUN and mobility scheme connect experts in climate change research

Since 2015, a team of international researchers across continents were brought together to study the impacts of Himalayan climatic change with support from the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research Development Fund. Among the team, Prof. David Chen from the Department of Geography and Resource Management at CUHK and Prof. Thian Yew Gan from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta have made several research visits under the CUHK Internationalisation Faculty Mobility Scheme and taken the collaboration further to study climate changes in different regions around the globe.

The team discovered in a recent study that human-perceived temperature had been elevated over the past few decades under global warming. ‘Among the extensive and far-reaching impacts of global warming, human health and labour productivity are most directly affected by thermal discomfort and heat-related morbidity and mortality. Our study of the faster increases in apparent temperature (i.e. the temperature equivalent perceived by humans) has produced important findings for this kind of climate change impact assessment, providing a strong scientific support for more stringent and effective climate change mitigation efforts to combat global warming,’ remarked Prof. Chen. The finding was recently published in Nature Climate Change. Other collaborators in the study included Prof. Gabriel Lau from the Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability at CUHK and Dr. LI Jianfeng from the Department of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University.

‘CUHK mobility scheme and WUN have provided excellent opportunities for us to explore and develop research collaborations with partners in different parts of the world. I have developed a network with geographers and climatologists with common interests and conducted some productive research on climate change and its impacts with Prof. Gan over the past three years.’ Encouraged by the success, the team is determined to continue the collaboration. Prof. Chen and Prof. Gan are planning to continue and further develop their collaborative work on climate studies in Asia and China.

The Internationalisation Faculty Mobility Scheme aims to strengthen the international exposure of CUHK’s faculty members and the visibility of the University as a whole. Airfare and accommodation are provided for outbound faculty members and accommodation is provided for inbound visiting scholars. In 2017–18, more than 60 awards were given under the scheme.

The scheme is now open for application for 2018–19. The application deadline is 10 April 2018. Please visit the website for more details.