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CHRISTIE LAI
University of Hong Kong
I am a forth year Ecology and Biodiversity student from the University of Hong Kong. I aim to specialise in marine ecosystems in the future as it is my passion to play an active role in marine conservation by being a marine biologist.
My passion has also grown me into being an assertive individual, as I strive to be the catalyst for people recognising the urgency to conserve and take actions. For people to incline into being more empathetic towards the environment, they should first witness the beauty of our nature, and I hope my existence could inspire that.
" Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you've imagined "
MY GOALS
As a Hong Kong citizen, I wish to first develop an efficient and effective energy source to tackle the problem of wasteful energy consumption. Hong Kong has a high potential in becoming an energy-efficient city given our abundant natural resources, which will be enough to sustain both the anthroposystem and ecosystem. This fosters my interest in the engineering of renewable energy using local bioresources. The use of algae for electricity generation is very feasible to carry out as the algal count in Hong Kong waters is generally higher than other surrounding waters. Being in a location so proximate to other coastal cities, I would like to study the impact of climate change on coral coverage in the coral triangle, the most biodiverse and ecologically productive region in the world.
Without education and public policy, there will hardly be any prominent effects in the short-run. Besides my work in ecology, I am also an advocate for educational rights. I firmly believe that by being a role model, I can also inspire students to conserve the environment with me, and through them, they can gradually outspread this vision to people around them. That said, I co-founded an organisation that connects schools in Hong Kong and orphanages in Cambodia. As the concept of environmental education is more effective at a younger age, I wish to introduce this concept when engaging with schools in Hong Kong and orphanages in Cambodia.
Furthermore, I hope to work with Dr. David Baker, who specialises in corals, in the future. The opportunity to research and study the genetic potential of developing super-corals for restoration in the coral triangle to increase the carbon absorption rate is something that I am thinking about.