Prof Nancy Ip appointed as President of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Prof Nancy Ip, Founding Member of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (ASHK), has been appointed as the President of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Prof Ip will begin her tenure at HKUST on 19 October 2022.
Prof Nancy Ip served as the Vice-President for Research and Development of the HKUST. She is currently the Morningside Professor of Life Science, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience. She received her PhD degree in Pharmacology from Harvard Medical School, after which she held the position of Senior Staff Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New York. Since joining HKUST in 1993, she has also served as Dean of Science, Director of the Biotechnology Research Institute, and Head of the Department of Biochemistry.
Prof Ip’s major research interests are in neural development and function as well as drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. She is well-known for her seminal discoveries in the biology of neurotrophic factors, which are proteins that promote the survival, development, and maintenance of neurons in the nervous system. She has also made important contributions towards understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying brain development and synaptic plasticity, and their dysregulation in neurological disorders. Using this knowledge, her research team aims to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, and identify drug leads for these brain disorders from Chinese medicine.
As a highly accomplished researcher, Prof Ip has published over 250 scientific papers with 17,690 Science Citation Index (SCI), and holds 41 patents. Prof Ip has received numerous local and international awards and honours including Academician of The Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001, Fellow of Academy of Sciences for the Developing World in 2004, Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Sciences in 2005, Founding Member of The Hong Kong Academy of Sciences in 2015, the L’OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, the National Natural Science Awards and the “Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite”.
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