Prof. Hon-Ming Lam, a Hong Kong native, obtained his Ph.D. degree (Molecular Biology and Biochemistry) from Northwestern University in the USA in 1992. He received further postdoctoral training at New York University (1992-1996) in the field of plant molecular biology. In 1997, he returned to Hong Kong to join The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently the director of Molecular Biotechnology Program and the director of the Center for Soybean Research at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof. Lam made significant contributions in plant molecular biology especially in nitrogen metabolism and amino acid signaling in the early stage of his career. He then focused his research on soybean genomics and gene functional studies. He led a project to employ whole genome sequencing approach to complete a study on the genomic diversity between wild and cultivated soybeans. Using the soybean genomic data, the goal of his team is to explore important genes/alleles from unique soybean germplasm and apply them to crop improvement programs, especially in the enhancement of stress tolerance.
