Associate Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Cross-appointment)
Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
Co-Principal Investigator
Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering
Prof. Derek Ho is currently an associate professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. He serves as co-principal investigator at the Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering, where he conducts translational research in multifunctional materials and devices for wearable medical electronics. Prof. Ho is also cross-appointed by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
Prof. Ho was born in Hong Kong and received his education in Canada. After obtaining his PhD, he returned to Hong Kong to begin his academic career. Prof. Ho received his B.A.Sc. (first-class honours) and M.A.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. At UBC, he focused on microelectronics and became fascinated with small devices. Prof. Ho received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada in 2013, for his work integrating functional materials and microelectronics for chemical and bio analysis applications.
Prof. Ho's research interest is in soft ionic-electronic materials and devices, focusing on two application areas: (i) sensors (mechanical, chemical, and biological) and (ii) electrochemical energy storage devices (e.g. flexible supercapacitors and batteries). Both areas are linked through his expertise in materials synthesis, surface functionalization, interfacial optimization, and device architecture. Over the years, in the sensing area, Prof Ho's group has made notable advances in multi-length-scale architectures, such as the bean-pod-inspired architecture for wide dynamic range pressure sensing. In the energy storage area, his group pioneered the micro-redoxcapacitor (MRC), the first energy storage device combining both pseudocapacitive (capacitive) and redox (battery) mechanisms in a single electrode, advancing the speed-capacity limit. For more information, please feel free to check out his academic genealogy or his interview with Materials Horizons.
Outside of the lab, Prof. Ho enjoys nature, photography, playing the piano, and tennis (in Hong Kong), and snowboarding (in Canada). Update: Prof. Ho has little life outside the university and has no hobbies :)
D Ho*, Materials Horizons, 10, 2723-2725, 2023. (DOI)