Julian Cheng Zhizhen, a global expert in optical and radio frequency wireless communication, has left his position in Canada to join the newly established Great Bay University (GBU) in southern China.
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Cheng, previously an electrical engineering professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), will be chair professor and dean of the school of information science and technology, GBU announced in a post on its official social media account on June 23.
The announcement came just four days after China’s education ministry approved the establishment of the university in Guangdong province.
Shanghai-born Cheng secured fellowships at both the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering during his 30-year research career in the country.
He said he was inspired to return to China after visiting the GBU campus in the city of Dongguan last April. “After thinking about it for six months, I sold all my houses in Canada and bought a one-way ticket to return to China full-time,” he said in a video posted as part of the GBU announcement.
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Many of Cheng’s research projects at UBC’s school of engineering related to ultraviolet communication (UV-C), notable for being able to use non-linear wavelengths in signal transmission, but his interests also span wireless robot communication and the integration of artificial intelligence into wireless networks.