Sum Lee recognized with Honorary University Fellowship

Dr. Sum Lee, professor emeritus (Gastroenterology) will be recognized with an Honorary University Fellowship from the University of Hong Kong (UHK) this month.

Honorary University Fellowships were created in 1995 to recognize and honor those who are held in the highest regard by the University and to establish closer relationships with the community.

Lee is a distinguished physician and world-renowned gastroenterologist, and has served as the 39th Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He holds MBBS and MD degrees from HKU, a PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and is currently professor emeritus in the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Washington.

In an illustrious career that has spanned the globe, Lee has studied, worked and lived in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, the US and the UK.

He settled in the University of Washington in 1985, where he became professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, and was appointed Cyrus E Rubin Endowed Chair.

A consummate physician, he was named one of the ‘Best Doctors in USA’ for 10 years in a row. He is passionate about research, especially in liver and biliary tract diseases, and has been inducted as a Master of the American College of Gastroenterology.

In 2008, he returned to Hong Kong and served as Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Hong Kong from 2008 to 2013, during which time he also co-founded the Centre for Medical Humanities and Medicine, and the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law. He was also instrumental in the commissioning of the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital and the Hong Kong Gleneagles Hospital.

Lee has won numerous international research accolades, including the Fogarty International Research Scholar Award (1978-80) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the US; the Outstanding Young Investigator Award (1986) from the World Congress of Gastroenterology; and the Distinguished Research Award (2010) from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

He has also been recognized with many teaching prizes, and has been referred to as a ‘professor of professors’. He has served as an advisor in research agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Medical Research Council, and on editorial boards of international scientific journals.