Rate My Professor Lei Sun

Professor Lei Sun is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his B.S. in Electronic Engineering and Information Science from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1996, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000, and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2004. After conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Southern California from 2004 to 2008, he joined PolyU in 2008 as Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Division of Biomedical Engineering, promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, and later to full Professor. Currently, he serves as Director of the Research Centre for Non-invasive Brain Computer Interface, Deputy Director of the Centralised Animal Facility, member of the University Council, and member of the Staffing Committee and Research Committee of the Faculty of Engineering. Prof. Sun is a Senior Research Fellow of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and has earned the Merit Award in Research from PolyU, along with multiple Scholarly Activity and Research Grant Achievement Awards from the Faculty of Engineering.

With over 25 years of experience in medical ultrasound technology encompassing system development, signal and image processing, and biomedical applications, Prof. Sun's research focuses on ultrasound neuromodulation and brain stimulation, ultrasound bio-effects for cancer therapy and diabetes treatment, and multimodality molecular imaging and theranostics. As Principal Investigator, he has secured research funding exceeding HK$76 million from bodies including the Research Grants Council General Research Fund, Collaborative Research Fund, Health and Medical Research Fund, Innovation and Technology Fund, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Ministry of Science and Technology. He holds more than ten granted or filed US and Chinese patents and has authored over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings in journals such as Nature Communications, PNAS, Advanced Science, Biomaterials, Cell Reports, npj Regenerative Medicine, and Acta Biomaterialia. Key publications include 'Targeted neurostimulation in mouse brains with non-invasive ultrasound' (Cell Reports, 2020), 'The mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 significantly mediates in vitro ultrasonic stimulation of neurons' (iScience, 2019), and 'The mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 contributes to ultrasound neuromodulation' (2023). He is General Chair of the Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation Conference 2025 and a member of committees in the Chinese Society of Biomedical Engineering and Chinese Society of Ultrasound in Medicine.