Marco is now Advance Qld Industry Research Fellow(Mid-career) after being an Amplify Fellow and Advance Queensland Research Fellow at School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland (UQ).

He gained a Bachelor's degree in minerals engineering and a Master's degree in microbiology at Central South University, China followed by a PhD degree in chemical engineering at UQ.

Before joining UQ Hong had experience as a chemical engineer in industry working for Its technology centre and Olympic Dam at BHP Billiton.