Lap-Chee Tsui

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Professor Dr. Lap-chee Tsui BSc, MPhil, PhD, O.C., O.Ont. (Chinese: 徐立之; pinyin: Xú Lìzhī; born December 21, 1950) 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 September 1, 2002. Prior to his appointment, Prof. Tsui was Geneticist-in-Chief and Head of the Genetics and Genomic Biology Program of the Research Institute, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. He was also the holder of the H.E. Sellers Chair in Cystic Fibrosis and University Professor at the University of Toronto. He is the Immediate Past President of HUGO, the international organization of scientists involved in the Human Genome Project.

Prof. Tsui was awarded his bachelor's (with only 3rd class honours) and master's degrees from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1972 and 1974, respectively. He would eventually prove himself to be an accomplished scientist despite his not very promising performance in college. Upon the recommendation of his mentor at the Chinese University, Tsui continued his graduate education in the United States and he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979. He later joined the Department of Genetics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Prof. Tsui became internationally acclaimed in 1989 when he and his team identified the defective gene, namely Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator (CFTR), that causes cystic fibrosis, which is a major breakthrough in human genetics.

Prof. Tsui was born in Shanghai. He grew up in Dai Goon Yu, a little village on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong near Kai Tak Airport, where he would hang out with other kids and go exploring in ponds, catching tadpoles and fish to do simple experiments. As a boy he dreamed of being an architect. He received his secondary education at Homantin Government Secondary School, Kowloon, Hong Kong. He did not take up genetics until after his PhD.

In 1991, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2002, he was awarded the Killam Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts.