Donor
Dr Eddie Yeung and The Estate of Tsang Wing Hing
Madam Winnie Yeung Tsang Wing-yee and her younger sister, Ms Tsang Wing-hing, are two of the eight children of the late Mr Tsang Shiu-tim, a successful entrepreneur and generous philanthropist who donated to many charitable causes during his lifetime. After he passed away in 1972, the Tsang family honoured his wishes by continuing to contribute to a wide range of charities, notably in education and elderly services. In 2007, the Tsang Shiu Tim Charitable Foundation was established to oversee the family’s charitable activities.
Wing-yee and Wing-hing completed their secondary education at the St. Paul’s Co-educational College, Hong Kong. Wing-hing then continued her education and graduated from the University of Hong Kong. Inspired by their father’s charity work, the two sisters shared the same vision – they believe that the younger generations in Hong Kong should have access to world-class education and that elderly people have the rights to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.
The Yeung Tsang Wing Yee and Tsang Wing Hing Endowed Professorship in Neuropsychology is established to commemorate their sisterhood and, at the same time, realise their vision. The generous donation was made to support education and research work in the domains of neuroscience and neurological rehabilitation, as an encouragement to researchers and students who study and conduct research in those areas for the wellbeing of those cognitively impaired.
Appointee
Professor David Shum
Professor David Shum is a neuropsychologist who specialises in the research of brain injury, ageing, cognitive impairments, and rehabilitation. He earned his BA Hons (first class) from Massey University, New Zealand, and his PhD in neuropsychology from the University of Queensland, Australia. Before returning to Hong Kong in 2018 to accept the appointment as the Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences and Chair Professor of Neuropsychology at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at PolyU, he had worked in higher education in Australia for many years.
Professor Shum has published four books, nine book chapters, over 280 refereed journal articles, six encyclopaedia entries, and edited one book. Also, he has been awarded over 25 national and international level competitive grants by funding bodies such as the Australian Research Council, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, and Hong Kong Research Grant Council, totalling HK$66.8 million. Professor Shum is frequently invited to international and national conferences to present his findings. He is also on the editorial boards of internationally renowned journals such as Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and PsyCh Journal.
The Endowed Professorship will enable Professor Shum to further promote the important role of neuropsychological research in understanding and preventing age-related decline in human brain functions. He is leading a research team to study human executive functions and design training programmes to delay the onset of such declines. By using state-of-the-art technology, his team provides much needed evidence that executive functions can be trained and related functional declines can be delayed. These research results will be translated into practice in the communities and promote everyday independence among older individuals.
