Kim Lau received his BSc. degree in pure chemistry from Royal Holloway and Birkbeck New College, University of London in 1983. He was then engaged in catering business for over a decade. He then returned back to study chemistry and received both his MRes. (1997) and Ph.D. degrees (2001) in analytical chemistry from Birkbeck College, University of London. Kim Lau joined Dublin City University (DCU) in year 2000 as a postdoctoral research fellow in the National Centre For Sensor Resarch. He progressed to the role of research manager of Adaptive Sensors Group, which is led by Prof. Dermot Diamond; the then Vice President of Research of DCU in 2004. At the same time, he began lecturing in the Department of Chemical Sciences. From 2006 -2013, He had been an Adjunct professor of the chemistry department, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China where he supervised PhD and Master Students. In 2007, with the seed funding from the China-Ireland Collaboration Funding Award, Kim Lau cofound The China-Ireland Research Centre for Advanced Materials and Sensor Development with Prof. XiaoXia Liu, the Dean of Science Faculty, Northeastern University of China. Over 15 peer reviewed journal papers have beed produced from the collaboration. Kim Lau was also the founding member and senior research Fellow of the Marine and Environmental Sensing Technology Hub (MESTECH), established in Dublin City University in March 2011, Ireland. Kim Lau is the named inventor of over 10 international patents; he has published over 70 peer reviewed papers in international journals and presented close to a hundred conference papers. Kim Lau is the recipient of DCU Research Fellowship Award in 2007. He was the winner of the Best Research Paper Award in Body sensor Network 2010. Prof Lau joined XJTLU in 2011 as an associate professor to begin the Department of Chemistry. He was one of the four founding members of the Department who were responsible for establishing the BSc in Applied Chemistry teaching programme, setting up the research facilities and the postgraduate (MRes and PhD) training programme. The Department has produced the first cohort of graduate in 2014 and the first cohort of Master graduates in 2016. Prof. Lau was appointed as full professor in 2016.

Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Sensor Technology

Advanced Materials and Smart Materials

Inherently conducting polymers (ICP) are a new class of organic polymers that conduct electricity. These flexible organic materials are easy to prepare, non-toxic, highly stable and can now reach metallic conductivity. These materials can be stimulated both chemically and electrochemically to perform mechanical actions hence they can be used to fabricate a wide range of sensors and actuators including gas sensors amp; biosensors, biomimics such as artificial muscle (as in artificial heart, artificial fish), micropumps and drug delivery,… etc.

Graphene has promised a revolution in material science. High flexibility, excellent conductivity, large surface area and easy fabrication have attracted research in energy storage, electronics, sensors, functional fabrics, optical devices, medical application… etc.

Sensor Research

Sensor research is a multidisciplinary research area that requires material development, surface modification, chemical analysis techniques, transduction methodology, and other skills sets such as microfabrication techniques, electronics and programming, etc.

Sensors for (Personal) Health care:- In the developed world many people suffer from diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, as a result of their body metabolism slow down (metabolic syndrome). This could be due to either their life style, genetic inheritance or a consequence of other illnesses e.g. resulting from medical treatment of mental illness.

This project is to develop sensors for early detection of metabolic slow down by real-time monitoring of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides…. etc.) by using quantum dots (QDs) as the transducer.

More details

2010 , Best Paper Award: International Conference on Body Sensor Networks (BSN 2010) 7 amp;#8211; 9 June 2010 Biopolis, Singapore.

2007 , DCU Research Fellowship Award, 2007

2004 , Best Poster Award: 3rd Biennial Conference on Analytical Sciences Ireland, Cork University, Cork, Ireland, September 2004