Our Members

Prof Joseph Sriyal Malik PEIRIS

Elected as ASHK Founding Member in 2015

MBBS; D Phil (Oxon); MRCPath; Fellow of the Royal Society, London; Fellow of the Royal College of Pathology and Royal College of Physicians, UK; Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Pathologists and Academy of Medicine; Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Community Medicine; Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health UK; Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology; Founding Member of The Hong Kong Academy of Sciences

Brief Introduction

Chair of Virology and Tam Wah Ching Professor in Medical Science, The University of Hong Kong

Prof Malik Peiris is currently the Chair of Virology and Tam Wah Ching Professor in Medical Science at School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong. He co-directs the WHO Influenza H5 Reference laboratory, Directs the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole and is an Affiliated Professor of the Institut Pasteur, Paris.  

He graduated from the University of Ceylon (MBBS) in 1972, received his doctoral training in virology at the University of Oxford (1981) and training in clinical virology at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He is a clinical and public health virologist with a particular interest in emerging virus disease at the animal-human interface including influenza, coronaviruses (SARS, MERS) and others. His current research encompasses the pathogenesis, innate immune responses, transmission, ecology and epidemiology of human and animal (poultry, swine, wild birds) influenza viruses. His research has provided understanding on the emergence and pathogenesis of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus and on avian influenza viruses such as H5N1. His collaborative research has provided evidence-based options for the control of these viruses in poultry and in humans. His research has provided new insights on the pathogenesis of severe viral pneumonia caused by avian influenza A H5N1, leading to novel therapeutic options. In 2003, he played a key role in the discovery that a novel coronavirus was the cause of SARS, its diagnosis and pathogenesis. Currently he is researching the recently emerged MERS coronavirus.

He serves on many standing committees and ad-hoc advisory committees of the WHO and FAO and has served on WHO missions investigating outbreaks of Avian influenza A H7N9 in China, and MERS in the Republic of Korea and Saudi Arabia.

He was Croucher Senior Medical Fellow in 2005, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2006 and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA in 2017.  He was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, France in 2007, the Mahathir Science Award, Akademi Sains, Malaysia in 2007 and Silver Bauhinia Star (S.B.S.), Hong Kong SAR in 2008.

In 2006, Time Magazine selected him as one of the 63 Asian Hero’s of the last 60 years for his contributions to the control of infectious disease epidemics.

 

Website of Prof Malik Peiris at The University of Hong Kong

December 2021

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