Christopher Chao is Dean of Engineering and Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He received his BSc(Eng) degree in Mechanical Engineering (First Class) from HKU in 1988 and worked for Swire Industrial Division from 1988-1990. He was awarded the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship for Overseas Studies in 1990 and obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from The University of California, Berkeley, USA, in 1992 and 1994, respectively. He was an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 1995-1997 and joined The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 1997 moving through the ranks of Assistant Professor (1997-2002), Associate Professor (tenured, 2002-2009), Full Professor (2009-2015) and Chair Professor (2015-2018) before he joined HKU in June of 2018. He was Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) from 2011-2014 and Head of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from 2014-2018 when he was at HKUST.

Prof. Chao has graduated 15 PhD and 19 Research Masters students who are now serving the energy and environmental engineering communities, among them five are teaching in major research universities in Hong Kong, Australia, the UK, Singapore and Pakistan while some have become entrepreneurs. His research is in thermal and environmental engineering covering areas of aerosol dynamics, energy efficient building technology and energy engineering. His early work focused on contaminant transport in indoor environments and his recent work extends into topics such as solar and waste heat driven adsorption cooling and refrigeration systems, passive radiative cooling, nanofluid heat transfer and other advanced cooling technologies. He is supervising a research team of about 20 PhD, research masters students and other research staff. Prof. Chao has published more than 130 journal and archival papers and more than 100 conference papers and technical reports. He has been serving as Regional Editor and Editorial Board Member in several major journals in his field.

Prof. Chao is a Fellow of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (FASME), USA, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), UK, The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (FCIBSE), UK, The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (FHKIE), and a member of The International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ) Academy of Fellows. Prof. Chao is a Registered Professional Engineer (RPE) in Hong Kong and a UK Chartered Engineer (CEng). He is a vetting member in the Assessment Panel (Foundation Industries) of the Innovation Technology Commission in Hong Kong. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Pilot Green Transport Fund of the Hong Kong Environment Bureau, the Building Committee of the Housing Authority, the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund Council and the Buildings Appeal Tribunal Panel. Prof. Chao is also active in entrepreneurship and technology transfer, and has obtained more than 10 patents and got involved in setting up a number of start-ups since early 2000s.