Prof. CHAN Lai Leo (陳荔)

Dr Chan is the Associate Director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), the Director of the Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity, the Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Research Centre for the Oceans and Human Health of CityU Shenzhen Research Institute and a visiting Associate Professor of the Department of Biomedical Sciences of CityU.

Dr Chan is also an expert member of the policy expert advisory committee of Shenzhen municipal government, a scientific diving consultant for the Marine Science Committee of the Hong Kong Underwater Association, a scientific advisor for the Coral Reef Branch of the Pacific Society of China, a member of expert advisory committee of China Coral Conservation Alliance, Chief Technical Advisor of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (Xiamen University) and an Adjunct Professor of Xiamen University.

Research Interests

Dr Chan has broad interests in ecology and biodiversity of marine ecosystems. His research focuses on the investigations of ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) in live tropical reef food fishes and the evaluation of the adverse impacts of CFP-related toxins on coral reef fish and hence coral ecosystems and human health. He and his U.S. collaborators have been granted a “Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) award” by the U.S. National Science Foundation in 2018 on “Advancing Global Strategies and Understanding on the Origin of Ciguatera Fish Poisoning in Tropical Oceans”.

Dr. Chan’s research team is currently focusing on investigations of the chemical and biological diversity of benthic dinoflagellates and the diversity of toxins associated with CFP in typical Asian coastal coral reef waters. He is very interested in the development of marine biotoxins and natural products for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.

Dr Chan is the principal consultant of three milestone projects commissioned by the Hong Kong Government: a study of benthic habitat mapping for Tung Ping Chau Marine Park, a study of coral monitoring in Marine Parks and a study of reef fish diversity in Hong Kong. In 2017 he was Course Director for the Advanced Study Institute of the Croucher Foundation on the “Impacts of eutrophication and harmful benthic microalgal blooms on coastal coral reef ecosystems using the CISME device and molecular techniques as complimentary research tools”.

Dr Chan has extensive experience in the development and implementation of scientific diving systems. He is a certified Open Water SCUBA Diver Instructor, a Public Safety Diver Instructor, a Scientific Safety Diver Instructor and a Technical Diver. He is interested in developing advanced diving technology and tooling for specimen collection for marine genetic resources and natural product discovery during manned and unmanned scientific dives within mesophotic coral ecosystems as well as hydrothermal vent ecosystems, and beyond.

Not only working actively at the frontier of marine environmental research, Dr Chan also actively participates in community services and public education. Through promoting diving training and related activities, he wishes to promote and raise public awareness on the conservation of marine biodiversity and the sustainable use of valuable marine resources.