Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Strategic Developments), CUHK
Li Ka Shing Professor of Biomedical Sciences
Professor Chan obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, the United States. Prior to returning to Hong Kong in 2009, he was a tenured Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C. He also served as Chief of the Division of Genetics and Metabolic Diseases from 1998-2000 and Director of the Molecular Genetics Diagnostic Laboratory from 1993-2000, at the Georgetown University Medical Center. In 2001, he helped the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in founding the Laboratory of Clinical Genomics. He was later appointed Head and Principal Investigator of the Section on Developmental Genomics, NICHD concurrent with his appointment at Georgetown University.
Professor Chan had served as the President and then Executive Director of the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America, USA, and as member of the Board of Directors of Joshua Hellmann Foundation for Orphan Diseases, Hong Kong. He is currently President of Hong Kong Institution of Science, a member of the Council of the Shaw Prize Foundation, a member of the Research Grant Council, UGC, a member of Hospital Authority Board, and a non-official Director of the Hong Kong Genome Institute.
Professor Chan’s expertise is in the molecular genetics of human reproductive and endocrine disorders, biochemical genetics of inborn errors of copper and zinc metabolism, functional genomics and epigenomics of germinal stem cells and reproductive tumors, and non-coding RNAs in the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). His research resulted in 11 patents, 5 books, 35 book chapters, and over 250 articles published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Professor Chan has received a number of honours including Honorary Member of the Chinese American Medical Association, New York, in 1992, a Distinguished Faculty Tutor, School of Medicine, Georgetown University in 1997 and a Distinguished Mentor Nominee, National Institutes of Health, in 2005 and 2006. He was also a recipient of the 1988 Merrick Award for Outstanding Biomedical Research from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, USA, 1989 Service Award from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, USA, and the 2008 Presidential Award from the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America, USA.
