Dr.Pun, Jason

Dr. Jason Chun Shing Pun is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Physics at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and a leading researcher and advocate in the field of light pollution and dark-sky conservation in Hong Kong. His academic background spans physics, astronomy, and astrophysics. He received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Rochester and later earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Dr. Pun has played a pioneering role in advancing the scientific understanding of light pollution in Hong Kong. Since the early 2000s, he and his research team have conducted systematic measurements of night sky brightness across urban and rural areas, establishing some of the earliest quantitative assessments of Hong Kong’s rapidly changing nighttime environment.

In 2010, he established the Hong Kong Night Sky Brightness Monitoring Network, which deployed monitoring stations across different parts of the territory to continuously record variations in night sky brightness. The project generated millions of measurements and provided important evidence of the severe effects of excessive artificial lighting and urban skyglow in one of the world’s most densely developed cities.

Beyond scientific research, Dr. Pun has been actively involved in public education, science communication, and discussions on light pollution mitigation. His work has helped raise public awareness of the environmental consequences of artificial light at night and has contributed to dialogue among researchers, professional communities, government agencies, and the wider public. His more recent research continues to explore long-term changes in night sky brightness and the effectiveness of dark-sky conservation measures in Hong Kong and the wider Greater Bay Area, connecting scientific monitoring with practical approaches to sustainable outdoor lighting and nighttime environmental management.