The fellowship programme was made possible with the generous support of our donors. The first three cohorts from 2019 to 2021 were supported by Dr Patrick Poon, and followed by two cohorts in 2023-24 and 2025-26 supported by the Suen Chi Sun Charitable Foundation. Profiles of the past awardees can be found here.

The Fellowship Programme shall include:

• scholarship to undertake the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme, on either part-time or full-time basis, at the HKU School of Public Health; and
• attachment at HKU School of Public Health, for research or knowledge exchange under the guidance of a professoriate staff; and
• two three-month stays at the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, Washington, D.C., U.S. during which the Fellow will learn and collaborate with an appropriate Board/ Expert Committee/ Roundtable, and be supported by a faculty mentor who is a member of NAM; and
• roundtrip airfare from Hong Kong to Washington, D.C., U.S. for the NAM residency experience

Please note the Fellow shall be responsible for travel to Hong Kong (if applicable), and living costs during their stay in Hong Kong and Washington, D.C., U.S. when undertaking the Fellowship Programme.

• Early to mid-career scholars with a graduate degree (i.e. either a master or a doctoral degree) and have completed their post-degree work for 2-10 years; and
• Have a demonstrated interest and commitment in fields such as global health policy, governance, diplomacy, sustainable development, healthy cities, health equity, health systems and economics, or related areas.

Awardee for the 2023/24 Cohort - Dr Nason Tan

Born in Malaysia and educated in India and Hong Kong, Dr Tan is currently Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong (HKU SPH). Prior to joining HKU SPH, Dr Tan has a unique exposure having served three different roles - humanitarian field worker, Board President, and Regional Operations Support Unit Director - at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Hong Kong. He is a healthcare activist with 20 years of clinical experience in tropical diseases and epidemics, and has worked in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Malaysia and Borneo. Through the Fellowship training, Dr Tan hopes to explore issues such as health equity, planetary health, mental health needs and substance misuse from a public health perspective, and how these can be adapted into the broader public health framework in the region. He believes the Fellowship could also help him become a better educator in global health for his undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. 

Awardee for the 2021/22 Cohort - Dr Holly Lei Hou

Born in China and educated in her home country and Denmark, Dr Hou is currently a Health Field Officer at the Regional Delegation for East Asia, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She has over ten years of education and training as a natural science researcher, and has been working on cross-disciplinary projects in Animal Sciences, Virology, Parasitology, Physiology and Biochemistry. Her current work at the ICRC aims at supporting global health and humanitarian aid with China’s increasing role, through research, analysis and diplomacy with key stakeholders and decision-makers. Through formal training provided by the Fellowship in HKU and at NAM, Dr Hou hopes to enrich her knowledge in public and global health, and to become a global health leader contributing to foreign health aid policy of China.

Awardee for the 2020/21 Cohort - Dr Kai Ning Cheong

Born in Singapore, Dr Cheong was educated and trained in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom in multiple medical fields with diverse work experiences in both the developing and the developed world. She has spearheaded a team to develop and run a paediatric field hospital during a five-month humanitarian mission with Médecins Sans Frontières in South Sudan; worked in gene therapy for primary immunodeficiencies at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital (UK); and coordinated a multidisciplinary team on a novel integrated healthcare service delivery model for rheumatology patients at the new Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. Through formal training provided by this Fellowship, Dr Cheong aspires to translate her vision in building comprehensive, sustainable and inclusive ‘treat-to-target’ paediatric healthcare service models into reality and to better integrate innovative technology into existing healthcare systems.

Awardee for the 2019/20 Cohort - Dr Chinmoy Sarkar

Born and raised in India and educated in his home country and the United Kingdom, Dr Sarkar is the concept lead, developer and PI of the UK Biobank Urban Morphometric Platform (UKBUMP) project which involves spatial modelling and development of the world’s largest health-specific built environment data platform studying links between built environment and health. His goal is to develop more robust and causal models of associations between built environment and health and test them on some of the world’s leading epidemiological cohorts, with an objective of informing urban health policies that can accurately incentivize or constrain positive or negative urban externalities and lifestyles respectively. Through formal training provided by the Fellowship, Dr Sarkar hopes to develop the science of healthy cities, and create/retrofit spaces and places in our neighbourhoods and cities that support healthy behaviours and lifestyle. View more about Dr Chinmoy Sarkar and his work here.

National Academy of Medicine (NAM)
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School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong (HKU)
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• About HKU School of Public Health
• About HKU Master of Public Health