Honorary University Fellows
Professor Lee Sum Ping 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, US.
In an illustrious career that has spanned the globe, Professor 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. Professor Lee is a consummate physician and 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.
Professor 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 recognised 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.
Citation delivered by Professor Chak Sing Lau, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health)
Professor Lee Sum-ping, Professor Emeritus in the Division of Gastroenterology, University of Washington, is a distinguished alumnus and former Dean of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (2008 – 2013).
Professor Lee received his MBBS (1970) and MD (1982) degrees from the University of Hong Kong, and his PhD (1978) from the University of Auckland. Professor Lee has travelled widely throughout his career. He left Hong Kong in 1983 and has practised in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the USA; serving as an advisor of several major scientific journals and research funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the Medical Research Council; and receiving many recognition awards, including the Outstanding Western Research Prize from the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 1993, and the prestigious Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and Mastership from the American College of Gastroenterology, both in 2010. He was Cyrus E Rubin Endowed Chair and Head of the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Washington School of Medicine Teaching Hospitals for thirteen years before returning to HKU to serve as her 39th Dean of Medicine.
Under Professor Lee’s leadership, the Faculty undertook important curriculum and institutional reforms and broadened its clinical and educational partnerships. He championed the integration of medicine and humanities into mainstream teaching – founding the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine (2009) and establishing the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law (2012). He oversaw the establishment or reformation of three Schools – the School of Chinese Medicine, School of Public Health and School of Nursing, as well as the launch of the Bachelor of Pharmacy (2009) and Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (2012) programmes. Professor Lee also guided the Faculty’s expansion of clinical partnerships, notably advancing HKU’s presence in the Chinese Mainland through the opening of the Hong Kong University-Shenzhen Hospital and other new hospital partnerships, thereby enriching students’ clinical exposure.
On retirement, Professor Lee returned to Seattle but remains an Honorary Clinical Professor in HKUMed; the Faculty established the Lee Sum Ping Medical Humanities Enrichment Award in his honour.
Professor Lee is a very modest person. He credits others for his own successes, including his family for being his most important and critical source of strength; his mentors and teachers for teaching him the invincibility of honesty and integrity, the healing power of empathy and compassion, and the exhilaration of intellectual exploration and discovery. He even credits his students from whom he learns the importance of curiosity, the necessity to challenge dogma, and the joy of learning. But his greatest learning has come from his patients. He says, and I quote: “They taught me the essence of resilience and determination, the value of strength and courage, and the ultimate meaning of peace.” End quote.
Many of Professor Lee’s close friends will know that he is as much a poet as an academic clinician, and that he loves studying Greek mythology. From the Faculty’s newsletter archives, you can find many of his own poems and references to Greek folklore that inspire his students. In his address to the graduands of the class of 2012, he encouraged them to find the Sisyphus in themselves and to show the world what was meant by commitment, determination and perseverance in their pursuit of a career in medicine. Sisyphus was a legendary king of Corinth who was condemned eternally to repeatedly roll a heavy rock up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down again as it nears the top. What Sisyphus had to do seems ceaseless and futile, but he refused to accept darkness and defeat and would continue to push on.
Mr Pro-Chancellor, it is my great pleasure to present Professor Lee Sum-ping for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to humanity, Hong Kong and academia.