World-renowned Nancy Ip tipped to be new HKUST president

Renowned neuroscientist Nancy Ip Yuk-yu is tipped to be the next president of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology after Shyy Wei steps down in October.

Ip, 66, is now a professor of life science and the director of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience at HKUST.

In November, HKUST launched a global research for its next president after Shyy, 66, who has been president since September 2018, resigned from his position with effect on October 19 this year, a year earlier than his term ends.

It is understood the university has considered both external and internal candidates, but has decided to pick the next president from internal candidates, with Ip likely to be selected, said a source who asked to remain anonymous. Since joining HKUST in 1993, Ip has served as vice-president for research and development, dean of science, director of the Biotechnology Research Institute and head of the Department of Biochemistry.

"I think she will make a good president but not sure if she wants the job, being a top-rated researcher," the source said, adding that she is a candidate "well thought of by Beijing."

If Ip is appointed, she will be the first female president of HKUST.

Ip was born in Hong Kong. After graduating from St Mary's Canossian College in Tsim Sha Tsui in 1974, she was granted a scholarship to study at Simmons College in Boston, US, now known as Simmons University, for a chemistry and biology double degree. Ip was admitted to Harvard Medical School in 1977, where she received her PhD degree in pharmacology in 1983, after which she worked in New York as a senior staff scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Ip is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, foreign associate of US National Academy of Sciences, fellow of Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and a founder member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences.

She returned to Hong Kong in 1993 and was recruited by the HKUST for teaching and research. Her major research interests are neural development and function as well as drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Ip holds 44 patents and has published more than 260 scientific papers.

She has received awards and honors including the National Natural Science Awards, the L'OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Award and the 10 Science Stars of China by Nature.

On Wednesday, Ip and her team announced a breakthrough on early diagnostics and gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases, in which they need only a drop of blood to classify Alzheimer's disease patients and evaluate their disease status.

As a Hong Kong delegate of the National People's Congress, Ip attended the "two sessions" in Beijing in March, where she suggested establishing a cross-border research institute of brain science in the riverside loop between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.