Honorary University Fellows
Professor Keiji Fukuda is a world-renowned physician and epidemiologist, and a global authority on public health and emerging infectious diseases. He is an Honorary Professor in the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health and served as its Director from 2017 to 2021.
Professor Fukuda holds a BA from Oberlin College, an MD from the University of Vermont, an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Epidemic Intelligence Service training at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Professor Fukuda has served at the World Health Organization (WHO) as Assistant Director General for Health Security and as Director of the WHO Global Influenza Programme. There he led numerous international field investigations and assessment missions, managed the WHO’s global response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic and was WHO’s key representative for major health negotiations such as the 2016 United Nations high level meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance.
Prior to joining the WHO, he was with the CDC in the US for 20 years. As Chief of Epidemiology of the Influenza Branch, he personally led its field teams that assisted Hong Kong during the 1997 avian influenza H5N1 outbreak. He also worked extensively in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in 2003 on the SARS outbreak.
At the University of Hong Kong, as Director of its School of Public Health, Professor Fukuda introduced the School’s first undergraduate degree, a BASc in Global Health and Development. He also advocated for the School to adopt a more global and real-world perspective towards public health.
During COVID-19, Professor Fukuda served as an advisor to the HKSAR Government, on the Steering Committee cum Command Centre in relation to the Novel Coronavirus and the Advisory Panel on COVID-19 Vaccines.
He is currently a Board Member of the China Medical Board and the RIGHT Foundation (Research Investment for Global Health Technology Foundation), and an Advisory Board Member to Ending Pandemics.
Citation delivered by Professor Chak-sing Lau, Dean of Medicine
Professor Keiji Fukuda is a world-renowned physician and epidemiologist, and a global authority on public health and emerging infectious diseases. He is an Honorary Professor in the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health and served as its Director from 2017 to 2021.
Keiji holds a BA from Oberlin College, an MD from the University of Vermont, an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Epidemic Intelligence Service training at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Keiji began his career in the United States as a medical doctor specializing in infectious diseases before joining the CDC, where he worked for more than two decades on issues such as pandemic preparedness and response. That position brought him to Hong Kong and started his ‘love story’ with the city in 1997, when he led CDC field teams to assist the territory during an outbreak of avian influenza H5N1. He also worked extensively in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in 2003 on the SARS outbreak.
In 2005 Keiji joined the World Health Organization, where he served as Assistant Director-General for Health Security, Director of the Global Influenza Programme, and Special Advisor to the Director General on pandemic influenza and on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Indeed, it is in the field of AMR that Keiji has achieved what he considers his greatest achievement. While at the WHO, Keiji led a global health diplomacy initiative that resulted in the historic Heads of State level meeting at the United Nations in 2016, and the adoption of a United Nations resolution on AMR, immediately raising AMR from a technical issue to national priority for many countries, and mobilising media attention and political, private-sector and financial support.
He hastens to add that while this may be his greatest professional achievement, on a personal level, raising his two daughters with his wife has been by far the most satisfying experience and accomplishment of his life!
Keiji joined the University of Hong Kong in 2016, and as Director of the School of Public Health, he introduced its first undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in Global Health and Development. He also advocated for the School to adopt a more global and real-world perspective towards public health.
Keiji was one of the gentlest professors at HKUMed, and was hugely popular within the School of Public Health. In 2018, he teamed up and created wonderful memories with students, staff and alumni of the School when they participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon 10K race. At times of Typhoon signal 8’s, he would walk round the Patrick Manson Building to urge everyone to get home as soon and as safely possible. His farewell party two years ago ran overtime as “too many” proud students and staff were lined up two flights of stairs to take photos with him.
During COVID-19, Keiji served on the Hong Kong SAR Government’s expert advisory panel (EAP) under the Steering Committee cum Command Centre in relation to the Novel Coronavirus and the Advisory Panel on COVID-19 Vaccines (Advisory Panel).
Keiji has received many awards around the world for his contributions to global public health, including the CDC’s Charles C. Shepard Science Award.
Not many will know that this eminent physician and epidemiologist had originally wanted to be an artist – either a painter or a film director!
But more importantly, he wanted to explore the world – and he did, travelling through a range of countries, exploring places and cultures he had only read about. Keiji credits these journeys with helping him understand that despite the breadth of difference among cultures and people, we all have fundamentally more in common with each other than those differences suggest.
Mr Pro-Chancellor, it is clear that what the Arts world and the National Geographic may have lost has been Hong Kong and global public health’s gain. Therefore, Mr Pro-Chancellor, it is my great pleasure to present Professor Keiji Fukuda for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to Hong Kong and academia.