Published on Career Center on ClassifiedPost.com

Rain man now cyclone expert

The smallest things can inspire the most distinguished academic careers. For Professor Johnny Chan Chung-leung, dean of the school of energy and environment and chair professor of atmospheric science at City University (CityU), it was, quite literally, the size of a raindrop.

Measuring individual droplets was part of his master's research project when he was still a physicist at the University of Hong Kong and that work was to lead to his present standing as one of the world's foremost experts on tropical cyclones and the science of climate change.

"I always wanted to study something to do with the weather," says Chan. He traces this interest back to his time as a Boy Scout, wondering why a day's hike often started in sunshine but ended in a downpour.

"That initial project was very simple. I built equipment to shine light through a hole across which raindrop