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Prof Paul Kwong Hang Tam is a renowned surgeon-scientist and university leader.  He graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 1976, was Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool in 1986-90, Reader and Director of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Oxford in 1990-96, and has been Chair of Paediatric Surgery at The University of Hong Kong since 1996. He was the Vice- President for Research (2003-2015), Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong (2015-March 2019) and concomitantly Acting President and Vice-Chancellor (February – July 2018). 

Prof Tam has made special contributions to advances in paediatric minimal invasive surgery, genetics and regenerative medicine of birth defects. His group discovered several new genes and elucidated the complex functional genomics of Hirschsprung’s disease and made breakthroughs in understanding the disease mechanisms for biliary atresia, laying the foundation for personalized and regenerative medicine for these intractable paediatric gastrointestinal disorders.  He has published 471 original articles with 28030 citations and h-index = 56, and has been awarded grants totaling > US$20m.  He serves on many international professional associations and was President of the Pacific Association of Paediatric Surgeons (2008-2009).  He also serves on editorial boards of several international journals including the Journal of Pediatric Surgery as the Editor for Pacific Region and member of International Advisory Board for the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

He has given invited lectures in international congresses of British, European, American and Asian associations of paediatric surgeons, Nature Forum and Days of Molecular Medicine. He was commissioned to be Lancet’s Series Lead for the Surgical Series on Paediatric Surgery in 2017. He has received numerous awards including the BAPS Prize, Lifetime Achievement Award (AAPS) and Honorary Fellowship of the American Surgical Association. He received the 2017 Denis Browne Gold Medal, the highest award of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, and the prestigious Rehbein Medal for 2020 of the European Paediatric Surgeons’ Association (EUPSA), being the first surgeon in Asia to receive this honour. 

Prof Tam also led several projects to develop paediatric surgery in less affluent communities, and nurtured a generation of over 2500 paediatric surgeons in China through a training programme with far-reaching impact in education and health-care delivery. 
 

Website of Prof Tam at The University of Hong Kong

December 2021

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