Newsletter No. 368

No. 368, 4.12.2010 7 ACHIEVEMENTS 成 就 謝作偉教授獲中國化學會化學獎 Professor Awarded by Chinese Chemical Society 化 學講座教授謝作偉教授（ 右 ）於溫州舉行的第十六 屆全國金屬有機化學學術研討會上，獲頒中國化 學會「黃耀曾金屬有機化學獎」，嘉許其對金屬有機化學 的傑出貢獻。 該獎自2003年設立，每兩年頒發一次，每屆選出兩位得獎 人，今年另一位得獎者為上海有機化學研究所侯雪龍教 授。侯教授師從中大副校長黃乃正教授，並擔任由中大、 香港大學及上海有機化學研究所共同組建的滬港化學合 成聯合實驗室副主任。 P rof. Xie Zuowei (right), Professor of Chemistry, received the Chinese Chemical Society Huang Yao 北島教授獲選為中國十大詩人之首 Professor Bei Dao Listed Top Poet 人 文學科講座教授北島教授獲內地著名文學刊物《鍾山》雜誌 選為當代（1979 – 2009）十大中國詩人，他是唯一獲全數評 委一致投票的候選人，在排名榜中高踞首位。評審團由內地十二位極 具影響力的大學教授及詩歌評論家組成，評選過程完全公開透明。 評審之一耿占春說：「北島無疑是新詩三十年最具象徵性的人物。無 論排幾大詩人，想到北島不需要猶豫，也幾乎不需要評價。他啟蒙了 一代人的詩歌觀念。」《鍾山》雜誌創刊於1979年，由江蘇省作家協 會主辦，是改革開放後創刊最早的幾家大型文學刊物之一。 北島教授另於早前獲得韓國第一屆 Changwon K.C. 國際文學獎詩 歌獎。 P rofessor Bei Dao, Professor of Humanities, has been selected number one of the top 10 Chinese poets by Zhong Shan magazine by means of a judging process that was completely open and transparent. The jurors included 12 highly influential university professors and poetry critics from throughout China. First published in 1979, Zhong Shan is founded by the Authors Association of Jiangsu Province and is one of biggest literature magazines published after China’s Economic Reform. Professor Bei Dao has been also awarded Korea’s First Changwon K.C. International Literary Prize for Poetry recently. 中大生嶄新生物加密系統奪金 Biochemistry Students’ Biological Cryptogrpahy System Wins Gold 生 命科學學院生物化學課程十一名學生在該院陳 竟明教授、陳廷峰教授及江紹佳教授的指導下， 編制了一套嶄新的生物儲存、加密和提取系統，證明用大 腸桿菌的質粒基因來儲存龐大資料，並在2010年度國際 基因機器設計大賽中摘金。比賽由美國麻省理工學院舉 辦，有一百三十八隊共一千九百多名來自全球各地的大學 生參賽。 在11月24日的祝捷會上，沈祖堯校長指出身為醫生，見大 腸桿菌必以抗生素誅殺之，但同學卻發揮無限創意，為它 添上全新功能。他恭賀同學及新成立的生命科學學院有此 驕人成績。 大約十年前，已有科學家提出利用細菌儲存資料，並發現 不同細菌在儲存資料上有不同優勢。建基於此，中大隊提 出將龐大資料數據分成小份，再運用他們特設的嶄新系統 為各個小份排序，以確保在存入資料的過程中，訊息能保 持完好無缺，繼而將各小份輸入細菌的基因細胞裏。在資 料加密方面，他們設計了一套三重保密系統—為資料編 碼、加密及核對總和；用者須提供足夠的資料才可提取檔 案，更能高度保障資訊安全。透過此技術，一克細菌可儲 存多達九十萬GB（gigabytes）數據，相等於450個現有最 大容量的2TB（terabytes）硬碟。 A team of 11 students from the Biochemistry Programme of the School of Life Sciences developed a new encrypt-and-store information system for the plasmid DNA of Escherichia coli under the supervision of Prof. Chan King-ming, Prof. Chan Ting-fung, and Prof. Kong Siu-kai of the school. The team entered the innovative project into International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) 2010 competition organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, competing against 138 teams and over 1,900 participants from around the world. The CUHK team walked away with the gold award. At a celebration held on 24 November, Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung, Vice-Chancellor, said that as a doctor, he is used to treating Escherichia coli with antibiotics. He praised the CUHK team for their innovativeness and congratulated the students and the newly-established School of Life Sciences on their achievements. Using bacteria as an information storage device was proposed about a decade ago. Building on the theory, the CUHK team proposed to fragment the information and store it in bacteria in order to store a massive amount Zeng Award in Organometallic Chemistry at the 16th National Conference on Organometallic Chemistry held in Wenzhou in recognition of his outstanding achievements. Established in 2003, the award is presented biennially to two scholars. The other awardee of this year is Prof. Hou Xuelong, former PhD student of Prof. Henry N.C. Wong, CUHK Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Professor Hou is the deputy director of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory in Chemical Synthesis, a joint venture of CUHK, The University of Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. 成 就 ACHIEVEMENTS of data. A novel information processing system was invented to reconstruct the original information. With this technology, it is estimated that one gram of bacteria can store data of up to 900,000 GB (gigabytes), which is equivalent to 450 hard drives, each with 2TB (terabytes) of storage capacity. 沈祖堯校長（後排右三）、理學院院長伍灼耀教授（後排左一）與獲獎學生 Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung (2nd right, back row), Vice-Chancellor; Prof. Ng Cheuk-yiu (1st left, back row), Dean of Science; and the CUHK team