JUSTL participant: Dr Mana Man Na Yung
Dr Mana Man Na Yung is a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Science & Technology at The Open University of Hong Kong. She completed her PhD in 2016 in the The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, working in the laboratory of Prof Kenneth Leung, JP. Dr Yung’s PhD project involved investigating the effect of salinity and temperature on the physicochemical and toxic properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs; due to their use in sunscreens), in the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. After completing her PhD, Dr Yung stayed on in Prof Leung’s laboratory as a Post-Doctoral Fellow until 2017 during which time she continued her research on NPs and also participated in a biodiversity survey in the waters in the western part of Hong Kong. She also participated in projects on the design and implementation of an ecological shoreline.
Current Work
Dr Yung has worked at The Open University of Hong Kong since the end of 2018. She was initially an Assistant Lecturer, but has been a Research Assistant Professor since June 2019. As an Assistant Lecturer, Dr Yung was responsible for teaching half a full-time BSc course, two distant learning courses, and various laboratory classes. Now, as a Research Assistant Professor, she is still involved in teaching but she also runs her own research programme. She is currently starting to prepare grant proposals to continue some of the research she started at The University of Hong Kong on the effect of nanoparticles on algae and fish health. She also proposes to investigate the levels of nanoparticles in the waters around Hong Kong, especially in the polluted waters near to the airport and in the Pearl River Delta.
JUSTL Programme
Dr Yung joined the JUSTL programme in 2012. Her mentors were JUSTL Director, Prof Andrew L. Miller (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and JUSTL Co-Director, Dr Karen Crawford (St. Mary’s College of Maryland). Dr Yung had just started her PhD studies to investigate the effect of sunscreens containing ZnO-NPs on microalgae, and while she wasn’t able to obtain microalgae at the MBL, she was able to run experiments with zebrafish, an animal model that it routinely used for toxicity testing. This was the first time that Dr Yung had worked with this animal model but she quickly learned how to handle the embryos.
No matter if you are working for the government, in the private sector or in academia, you have to learn how to write proposals. [ ] Not just a research paper, but also a research proposal.
Dr Yung also attended various seminars and lectures. She recalls attending a seminar about how to write proposals, and being told that, “No matter if you are working for the government, in the private sector or in academia, you have to learn how to write proposals. Don’t think that because you are a scientist, you don’t have to worry about money. Don’t think that you only need to care about your research. You have to learn how to write. Not just a research paper, but also a research proposal.” This concept was very new to her; she didn’t think that she had to learn to write a grant proposal because she was still a student. She thought that if she became a professor, then she would start to learn to write proposals, not before. However, after attending the seminar, Dr Yung changed her mind, and she took the speaker’s advice to grab every opportunity to get grant writing experience, and on her return to Hong Kong, she helped Prof Leung prepare a number of his grant proposals. This had a major impact on Dr Yung’s career because when she was interviewed for the job at The Open University of Hong Kong, one of the key questions that she was asked was if she had any experience in preparing research proposals. The fact that she did, she attributes to the seminar she attended at the MBL during the JUSTL programme.
Dr Yung describes her time on the JUSTL programme as being “unforgettable.” She was especially impressed that the other researchers were so approachable and open to answer her questions. Dr Yung recalls that even during meal times in the Swope cafeteria, she could sit beside someone and they would start to talk science…”what they had done, what they were doing and what they were planning to do.” The first question they usually asked her was, “What are you working on? What kind of projects are you interested in?” Then they would introduce her to people who were in the same field, and describe the resources available at the MBL that she could make use of in her experiments. Dr Yung was so impressed by this approach that she tries to generate this same type of “energetic atmosphere” for her students at The Open University of Hong Kong today. Dr Yung recalls that when she first started her PhD, Prof Leung told her that, “You have to think about science all day except for when you are eating and sleeping.” However, Dr Yung found that when she was at the MBL, people even talked about science when they were eating; it was their way of life rather than simply being a routine job!