17 Facts About Lap-Chee Tsui

Lap-Chee Tsui is a Chinese-born Canadian geneticist and served as the 14th Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Hong Kong.

Lap-Chee Tsui grew up in Kowloon, Hong Kong and attended Homantin Government Secondary School.

Lap-Chee Tsui became Postdoctoral Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellow in 1979 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, then joined the Department of Genetics of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1981.

From 1981 to 2002, Tsui continued his research and teaching in the Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto alternatively.

Lap-Chee Tsui was the President of Human Genome Organisation, the international organisation of scientists involved in the Human Genome Project, from 2000 to 2002.

Lap-Chee Tsui has served on the editorial boards for 20 international peer-reviewed scientific journals, numerous scientific review panels, and many national and international advisory committees, including the Medical Research Council of Canada, Canadian Genome Research Task Force Committee, Scientific Steering Committee of the National Institute of Biological Science, Scientific Advisory Committee of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development and Human Genome Organisation.

Lap-Chee Tsui is currently member of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, Council for Sustainable Development and Executive Committee, and Executive Committee of the Commission on Strategic Development of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Lap-Chee Tsui was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong in May 2002 and assumed office as the fourteenth Vice-Chancellor of the university with effect from 1 September 2002.

Lap-Chee Tsui became internationally acclaimed in 1989 when he and his team identified the defective gene, namely Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, that causes cystic fibrosis, which is a major breakthrough in human genetics.

Lap-Chee Tsui has made significant contributions to the study of the human genome, especially the characterisation of chromosome 7, and, identification of additional disease genes.

Lap-Chee Tsui has received numerous awards and honours for his outstanding work over the years.

Lap-Chee Tsui's honours include the titles of Distinguished Scientist of the Medical Research Council of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Fellow of Academia Sinica, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Honorary Fellow of World Innovation Foundation.

Lap-Chee Tsui received the Order of Ontario and the title of Justice of the Peace from the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Lap-Chee Tsui is an inductee into the Etobicoke Hall of Fame.

Lap-Chee Tsui became the centre of controversy following Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's visit to the centenary ceremony of Hong Kong University on 18 August 2011.

Lap-Chee Tsui was later accused by the students of pandering to the Chinese central government and failing to protect both the freedom of speech and expression, as well as academic freedoms of students.

Lap-Chee Tsui apologised to the university's students and alumni for not having been able to prevent the unfortunate incident.