Donor
Miss Cally Kwong Mei-wan, JP
Ms Kwong is currently a Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress; a University Fellow of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; President of Federation of Hong Kong Zhuhai Community; Executive Vice President of Federation of Hong Kong Guangdong Community; Executive Vice President of Hong Kong Volunteers Federation. She was crowned Miss Hong Kong runner-up in 1982 and launched a successful singing career soon after, releasing more than 40 best-selling Cantonese and Putonghua albums. In 2000, Cally Kwong founded and launched her eponymous jewellery brand encapsulating the highest appreciation for life, art and heritage as her brand philosophy. Miss Kwong holds a Graduate Gemologist Diploma from GIA and a Calligraphy Education Diploma from the City University of Hong Kong. She was also awarded the 3rd Hong Kong Jewellery Manufacturers Association Outstanding Achievement Award in 2018.
Fully committed to charitable causes and to nurture and train coming generations, Ms Kwong has established 57 Kwong Mei Wan Hope Schools in mainland China. In 2008, she was named among the Jiangxi’s top ten philanthropists. She is also a Visiting Professor of Nanchang University. Miss Kwong has generously supported the development of PolyU. She is Honorary Life Chairman of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Foundation, and is the benefactor of the Cally Kwong Mei Wan Endowed Professorship in Biomedical Sciences and Chinese Medicine Innovation.
Appointee
Professor Simon Lee
Professor Simon Lee is Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition (FSN) and Director of the PolyU-BGI Joint Research Centre for Genomics and Synthetic Biology in Global Ocean Resources. His extensive research spans brain disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, oncology, drug discovery (natural products and Chinese medicine), environmental health, and toxicology. He has been recognised by Stanford University as one of the top 2% most-cited scientists in Pharmaceutical Science and Biology, with an h-index of 62 from Scopus. He has published over 300 articles in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, and Science Advances, and holds over ten invention patents.
Professor Lee serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Chinese Medicine, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and Water Biology and Security. He is the founder of AIM Pharmaceutical International Limited, a PolyU academic-led start-up under PolyU Ventures, and a co-incubation partner with HKSTP Incu-Bio. His inventions have led to investigational new drug (IND) applications and dietary supplement products with NDI and GRAS certifications from the FDA.
A life member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, he has served in various professional associations and government boards. His roles include President-elect of the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association (GP-TCM RA), member of the Chinese Medicine Development Blueprint Subcommittee (CMDBSC), assessor for ISO/IEC 17025 Accreditation Assessments in the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of the Hong Kong SAR government, and member of the Chinese Medicine Regulatory Advisory Board in the Pharmaceutical Administration Bureau of the Macao SAR government. Appointed as the Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Biomedical Sciences and Chinese Medicine Innovation, he aims to transform traditional Chinese medicine through modern biomedical science.
