Dr Heidi HUANG

Prof Amos TAI, Chairman of the College Life Committee, half-jokingly calls himself ‘Doctor of the Earth’. He has, however, many accolades bestowed by others. He also serves as a founding board member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences and as a board member of Friends of the Earth (HK) and CEDAR Fund. In 2024, he was named one of Hong Kong’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons and became the city’s only climate scientist to receive the World Meteorological Organization Research Award for Young Scientists. In his acceptance speech for the Outstanding Young Persons award, Amos cited the Cantopop artist Terence Lam‘s lyrics in the song Just Carry On to encourage the young people in Hong Kong.

The lyrics were cited again by College Master Prof Suk Ying WONG at the CWC High Table Dinner (HTD) on 29 January 2026 to introduce Amos as the honorary speaker, setting the stage for his inspiring and animated sharing of an unconventional career shaped by the intersection of personal passion and communal responsibility.

Amos spoke candidly about how his family was forced to move into public housing in a grassroots district of Hong Kong during the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s. Amid financial strain and family pressures, he found refuge in acting and academic study—pursuits that offered both solace and a sense of self-worth. Reflecting on his secondary school years, he said acting taught him empathy, while strong academic performance gave him a way to redefine himself beyond the turmoil at home and outside.

When faced with a choice between studying medicine at CUHK and environmental engineering science at MIT, the young Amos TAI chose the less conventional path, going against his parents’ advice with little hesitation. It was a decision that would shape the trajectory of his life.

A few days after the HTD, I sat in Chong Kin Wo Hall (Multi-Purpose Hall) for lunch with Amos to hear more of his story. Seeing him pick his food in Chong Kin Wo Hall, it quickly became clear, can feel like a manifesto of his principles. In media interviews, he has consistently advocated reduced meat consumption, arguing that around 60 to 75 grams per day—roughly the size of one’s palm—is sufficient, alongside a diet rich in vegetables, whole grains and other plant-based foods. Of every two meals he eats, one is fully vegetarian, while the other is mostly plant-based supplemented only with small portions of meat, dairy, or eggs. This practice, he notes, can cut one’s food-related carbon footprint by roughly 60 percent. His own plate that day reflected the same philosophy: three-quarter greens, one-quarter meat, with rice filling the rest of the plate.

‘Can we have more tofu, beans or other soy products?’ Amos asked the caterer, before explaining how soy-based foods, legumes and other plant-based proteins offer a healthier and more sustainable alternative to meat.

‘Given that our global food system contributes nearly one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions,’ Amos explained, ‘simple shifts in our diets can have enormous collective impact. If everyone follows my practice—mainly plant-based food with occasional meat and dairy—the global reduction could be transformative. But even small steps matter: cutting down red meat in daily consumption is already both healthier and more environmentally friendly, reducing one’s daily food-related carbon footprint by up to 30%.’

Over a lively lunch conversation, Amos laid out the principles behind a sustainable diet. Beef, he noted, sits at the top of the food carbon-emissions list, followed by pork, chicken, and seafood. Eggs, legumes and soybean products, by contrast, provide reliable, lower-impact sources of protein. ‘We need protein—especially young people,’ he said.

We also shared a local Cantonese’s appreciation for the stem portions of leafy greens—prized not only for their higher fiber content, but also for the mouthful delight they bring to each bite. For Amos, being vegetarian is not an act of ‘self-punishment’, but a way of celebrating life and reconnecting with nature and the wider community. He also stressed that minimizing food waste is central to his practice. As we surveyed the dishes on the buffet table, it was hard not to notice that much of the leftovers was green vegetables. That observation led to a broader conversation about their similar fate at communal dinners, where they tend to be the least popular dishes. Yet the vegetarian menu draws in many students, precisely because the food tastes better. ‘Good taste is essential for vegetarian dishes to succeed,’ Amos noted.

‘We should also eat real food, not ultra-processed products loaded with refined sugars, saturated fats, and chemical additives,’ Amos said. ‘Processed foods tend to be high on calorie but low on nutrients, and their manufacturing often consumes more energy and resources than preparing fresh produce. By choosing whole grains, fresh vegetables, fruits, and minimally processed foods that provide plant and animal proteins, we not only get our nourishments more effectively but also cause less damage to the environment.’

One positive shift is already visible at CWC communal dinners: more students are bringing their own vessels to take the leftovers home. While partly a cost-saving habit, Amos sees it as a meaningful step toward reducing food waste—an issue that feeds directly into his broader research agenda of building a sustainable food system within CUHK.

‘Ultimately, sustainability begins at the dining table,’ he said. ‘Our personal habits—what we choose to put on our plates each day—scale up to influence production systems, waste management, and even wider policies.’

In one of his articles Amos borrows a line from Michael Pollan’s bestselling In Defense of Food as his diet principle: ‘Eat food; not too much; mostly plants.’ These words are not difficult to understand, but capture very well Amos’s belief that sustainability begins with mindful, everyday choices at the table.

To learn more about Prof Amos TAI’s journey, please see the recently released RTHK interview,
Dream Chasers 戴沛權：以科研關愛世界.