29 Dec 2010

Professor Lee Sum-ping, Dean of Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, HKU, was selected by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), as the recipient of the 2010 AASLD Distinguished Achievement Award. Apart from being the first Asian to receive this prestigious award in scientific research, Professor Lee, as a dedicated clinician, was also conferred with a Master award by the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG).

Professor Lee felt deeply honored, yet greatly humbled and inspired for receiving these two awards, “It is a wonderful recognition for Asian, Chinese, Hong Kong as well as HKU. I am thankful to Hong Kong, a place that provided me education and inspired my life-long career.”

Professor Lee emphasised that the awards do not belong to him as an individual, they should go to the dedicated research team as a whole, who have been working very hard and diligently with him for many years.

The AASLD Distinguished Achievement Award is the highest honour given to an individual for his or her sustained scientific contributions to the field of liver disease and the scientific foundations of hepatology.

The award honours a sustained contribution rather than a single discovery or major achievement. The Award recognises Professor Lee’s prolific lifelong contributions to the multidisciplinary research on hepato-biliary physiology, that include the biochemistry of bile secretion, the physical chemistry of biliary lipids, and the cell biology of the biliary epithelium, all correlated with clinical observations in patients suffering from biliary diseases and gallstones. The 2010 AASLD Distinguished Awards was presented at The Liver Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in November 2010.

Professor Lee also received another distinguished award from ACG. He was awarded “Master”, a rare honor conferred upon physicians by the Awards Committee and trustees who have demonstrated distinguished service to the College and to the Gastrointestinal patient care and education. The ACG Master award was presented at the ACG Annual Scientific Meeting in San Antonio, Texas in October 2010.

Professor Lee received his medical degree (MBBS) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees from HKU in 1970 and 1980 respectively, and his PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1978. Professor Lee has an illustrious career spanning Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the US, and has served as an advisor of several major scientific journals and research funding agencies and received many recognition awards. He had been the Head of the Division of Gastroenterology of the University of Washington School of Medicine Teaching Hospitals for 13 years since 1995 before he returned to HKU and became Dean of Medicine.

About AASLD:

American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) is a leading non-profit international organisation of scientists and healthcare professionals dedicated to preventing and curing liver disease research. More information about the award can be found on the AASLD official website: http://www.aasld.org/

About ACG:

American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) aims to advance the medical treatment and scientific study of gastrointestinal disorders. More than 11,750 physicians from 82 countries are members of the ACG. More information about the award can be found on the ACG website: http://www.acg.gi.org/

To use the press release photo(s) for any publishing, publicity and related purpose, photo courtesy should be given to “Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong”