I am grateful to be invited by Croucher Foundation to attend the Hong Kong Laureate Forum. As indicated on my file, I am now 35 years old and a father of a 2yo baby living in California, USA --- probably too old to count as a "young" scholar.

I believe the Croucher Foundation nominated me because of my track record in high-throughput label-free microscopy, a key technology for cancer cell screening and drug discovery. I also represented HK at the Siegman Laser Summer School @Standford in 2016, which might have made a good impression. Frankly, once the funding from Croucher dried up in 2019, I joined the private sector to support my family. At work, I often got "kind" reminders to focus on execution. Managers, after all, don't need ideas from science nerds.

To sum up, I can offer to the Forum an unique angle and personality that is increasingly rare among elites. I was born in Kowloon Walled city; spent my childhood in Social Security. Earned a PhD in HKU, and now working as a grass root in the private sector. I suppose I have trodden all walks of life that no other young researcher could have experienced.