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Dr. Wing-Fu Lai

Dr. Wing-Fu Lai

  • Position: Associate Professor
  • Areas of expertise: bioactive agent delivery; microencapsulation; sustained release; functional food development; materials engineering and characterization
  • Email: W.F.Lai@leeds.ac.uk
  • Website: Twitter

Profile

Dr. Wing-Fu Lai is currently an Associate Professor in School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds. He is also an Honorary Professor at Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital. Dr. Lai has been qualified as a Licensed Pharmacist and a Registered Dietitian in People's Republic of China, in which he has also been accredited as “Overseas High-caliber Personnel” by Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. Dr. Lai is a Registered Nutritionist in the UK and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, and has received his Certified Food Scientist credential from the International Food Science Certification Commission in the United States.

Till now Dr. Lai has served as an ad-hoc reviewer for over 110 international journals, including ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Chemical Reviews, Biomaterials, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Journal of Controlled Release, Carbohydrate Polymers, Applied Materials Today, Food Bioscience, and Food Reviews International. His research focus lies in the development and engineering of polymeric materials for food and pharmaceutical applications. He has been ranked among the world's top 2% of scientists by Stanford University in 2021 and 2022, and among the world's top 100,000 scientists by GLOBALAUTHORID. Twelve of his articles have been selected as “ESI Highly Cited Paper”. Six of his articles have also been selected as “ESI Hot Paper”, ranking in the top 0.1% of articles in the relevant field.

Qualifications

  • PhD, Materials Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong
  • MSc (Distinction), Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology, The City University of Hong Kong
  • BSc (1st Hons), Food and Nutritional Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

Professional services

  • Division Leader, Carbohydrate Division, Institute of Food Technologists, United States, 2021 – Present
  • Committee Member, CODEX Committee on Food Additives, Institute of Food Technologists, United States, 2021 – Present
  • Grant Reviewer, Multi-year Research Grant (MYRG-GRG), University of Macau, People's Republic of China, 2023
  • Member of the Expert Review Team, Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality, Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government, People's Republic of China, 2018 – 2022
  • Grant Reviewer, National Natural Science Foundation of China, People's Republic of China, 2021 – 2022

Patents

Dr. Lai has till now received seven granted patents from diverse countries, ranging from the Republic of Korea to the United States.

  • Lai, W. F., & Wong, W. T. (2022). Application of luminescent films prepared from cellulose derivatives as food packaging films. People's Republic of China: State Intellectual Property Office of the P. R. C. CN113401500B
  • Lai, W. F., Wong, W. T., & Huang, M. J. (2022). Hydrogel materials and drug delivery system. People's Republic of China: State Intellectual Property Office of the P. R. C. CN112175204B
  • Lai, W. F., & Rogach, A. (2021). Drug delivery device and its method of production. United States: United States Patent and Trademark Office. US11123434B2
  • Lai, W. F., & Shum, H. C. (2020). Hypromellose-graft-chitosan and methods thereof for sustained drug delivery. People's Republic of China: State Intellectual Property Office of the P. R. C. CN107921002B
  • Lai, W. F., & Shum, H. C. (2020). Hypromellose-graft-chitosan and methods thereof for sustained drug delivery. Europe: European Patent Office. EP3288544B1
  • Lai, W. F., & Shum, H. C. (2018). Hypromellose-graft-chitosan and methods thereof for sustained drug delivery. United States: United States Patent and Trademark Office. US9867787B2
  • Jung, H. S., & Lai, W. F. (2016). Gene carrier and method for producing the same. Republic of Korea: Korean Intellectual Property Office. KR101586227B1
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Professional memberships

  • Member, The Bragg Centre for Materials Research, University of Leeds, UK
  • Member, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK
  • Member, Association for Nutrition, UK
<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>