The University of Hong Kong (HKU) welcomes Professor Ngô Bảo Châu, recipient of the 2010 Fields Medal, to join the Department of Mathematics under the Faculty of Science, commencing June 2026. Professor Ngô earned global recognition for his groundbreaking proof of the fundamental lemma in the Langlands Programme, a monumental achievement that solved a three-decade-old mathematical challenge and was named one of Time magazine's Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2009.

The noise that disrupts communication devices and sensors results from electrons being scattered by defects and temperature-driven vibrations in the materials they travel through.

A UCLA-led research team demonstrated that minuscule wires made from two unconventional materials can potentially reduce noise below the lowest level possible in traditional electronics.

These findings not only hold the potential to improve current technologies but also suggest possibilities in quantum computing.

A study in Risk Sciences examines whether alternative “big data” and the LASSO variable-selection method can strengthen health risk assessment in critical illness insurance. Using insurer application and claims records alongside smartphone-derived signals and public medical-claim information, the researchers report clear gains in out-of-sample predictive performance beyond traditional underwriting inputs. The paper also explores which categories of data may be most informative for underwriting.

Caltech's new work removes one of the main bottlenecks that has held back photonic chips, especially those that rely on visible light

 

In collaboration with the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Oshima College, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) succeeded in developing a new regenerator material composed solely of abundant elements, such as copper, iron, and aluminum, that can achieve cryogenic temperatures (approx. 4 K = −269°C or below) without using any rare-earth metals or liquid helium. By utilizing a special property called "frustration" found in some magnetic materials, where the spins cannot simultaneously satisfy each other's orientations in a triangular lattice, the team demonstrated a novel method that replaces the conventional rare-earth-dependent cryogenic cooling technology. The developed material holds promise for responding to the lack of liquid helium as well as for application to stable cooling in medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and quantum computers, which is expected to see further growth in demand. This research result was published in UK scientific journal, Scientific Reports, on December 22, 2025.