Mok Sau-King Professorship

In the early 20^th Century, Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, theorised that a supercontinent surrounded by one huge ocean was created about 300 million years ago by what he said was continental drift. He called it Pangea and hypothesised that its constituent parts later drifted apart to become today’s continents. 

Wegener’s theory was not supported at the time, partly because he was not a geologist and could not provide convincing geological evidence. However, that view has changed and it is now accepted that Pangea existed but was created by plate tectonic movements, rather than continental drift. And more recent research by geologists into “collisional events” shows that at least two other supercontinents existed.  

Professor Zhao Guochun is the Chair of Earth Sciences at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Mok Sau-King Professor at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). He is an internationally recognised geologist who specialises in early earth sciences, in particular the macroscopic processes of assembly and breakup of supercontinents in Earth’s history.

Professor Zhao’s research interest is in utilising modern geological theories and methods to resolve various geological issues. His main research fields are metamorphic petrology, Precambrian geology and the study of supercontinents.

He is the first person to propose that global-scale collisional events 2.0–1.8 billion years ago led to the assembly of a pre-Rodinian supercontinent, initially named “Hudson” and later named “Columbia” or “Nuna”. Scientists believe Rodinia was a supercontinent created 1.1–0.90 billion years ago. Professor Zhao used geological and paleomagnetic data to reconstruct the paleogeographic locations of East Asian continents from the breakup of Rodinia 750 million years ago to the assembly of Pangea at 250–220 million years ago.

Professor Zhao’s major findings include recognition of two Paleoproterozoic continental collisional belts (Khondalite Belt and Trans-North China Orogen) in North China and global-scale collisional events about 2.0–1.8 billion years ago that led to the assembly of supercontinent Columbia. More recently, his interest focuses on pre-plate tectonics and its bearing on the origin of continents, and planetary geology.

Professor Zhao obtained his BSc and MSc degrees from Changchun University of Earth Sciences (now merged into Jilin University) in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and his PhD from Curtin University, Australia, in 2000, where he received the “Outstanding PhD Thesis Award”.

Professor Zhao joined HKU in August 2000 as a Postdoctoral Fellow (2000-2002), and subsequently held positions as Research Assistant Professor (2002-2007), Associate Professor (2007-2013), Professor (2013-2019), and Chair Professor (2019-present). He is also a Visiting Chair Professor at Northwest University in Xi’an through the Changjiang Scholars program, and serves as Director of the NWU-HKU Joint Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences.

In 2019, Professor Zhao was elected as the Chinese Academy of Sciences academician. In 2021, he became a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries, and in 2023, he was inducted as a member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. According to the 2025 Best Scientists Rankings by Research.com, Professor Zhao is ranked 6th in the world and 1st in Asia in earth sciences.

His other outstanding achievements in geosciences include the State Natural Science Award (Second Class; First Awardee; 2014), the Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (2014-2023), the HKU Outstanding Researcher Award (2016), the 29th Khwarizmi International Award (First Class; 2016), the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize (now called “TWAS Award”) in Earth, Astronomy, Space Sciences (2018) and the HKU Distinguished Research Achievement Award (2021).

Professor Zhao’s contributions to the field are evidenced by the publication of over 520 scientific papers, which have garnered 76,183 citations, with an H-index of 146. His extensive research and ground-breaking discoveries have earned him numerous prestigious accolades and honours.