CHANGWON, South Korea — Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), led by President Chuljin Choi, announced that a research team led by Dr. Dahee Park at the Hydrogen Energy Materials Research Center has successfully developed a high-performance catalyst that significantly enhances the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a key process in alkaline water electrolysis. The team achieved this by partially substituting molybdenum oxide (MoOx) with iron (Fe), enabling simultaneous control of lattice structure and oxygen vacancies. The study presents a new catalyst design strategy that delivers performance and stability comparable to precious metal catalysts while utilizing low-cost materials.

The Techno-Entrepreneurship Core at the University of Hong Kong (HKU TEC) recently led 20 HKU‑affiliated startups to participate in the international startup event JUMPSTARTER 2026 and successfully held the “HKU Super Angel Symposium 2026” and “HKU Demo Day x JUMPSTARTER”. The events brought together government officials, academics, venture capital investors, entrepreneurship mentors and local startup representatives to discuss and promote the long-term development of the Greater Bay Area’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. 

Scientists have long sought to explain a key mismatch in Earth’s early history: oxygen-producing photosynthesis evolved hundreds of millions of years before atmospheric oxygen began to rise during the Great Oxidation Event. This delay has been linked to limited phosphorus—a nutrient essential to life—but the specific processes controlling phosphorus availability in the iron-rich oceans of Archean Earth (approximately 3.2–2.5 billion years ago) remained unclear. A study led by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has identified a previously overlooked process that may explain this prolonged delay. The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

A research team co-led by Professor Yang Lu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), and Professor Chengming Li from the Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology at University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), has successfully fabricated a free-standing ultrahard diamond wafer with a diameter of up to 5 inches, a thickness of 3 mm, and a Vickers hardness exceeding 200 GPa.