Scientific Committee

Members of the Scientific Committee
[In alphabetical order of family name]

Prof. Emeritus Dawn Brooker PhD MBE (UK) is internationally recognised for scholarship in practice development of person-centred dementia care and has long established working relationships with practitioners and scholars worldwide. Originally qualified as a clinical psychologist, Prof. Brooker has many years’ hands on experience in health and social care. She was the founding Director of the Association for Dementia Studies at University of Worcester. Dawn is passionate about writing books and developing resources that reflect the complexity of dementia care but that make these accessible for the widest possible audience. Whilst at Worcester she developed the Care fit for VIPS free website https://carefitforvips.co.uk based on her 2016 book on Person Centred Dementia Care. In 2019, she edited an updated edition of Tom Kitwood’s seminal work on person-centred dementia care. Together with Dr. Keith Oliver, Prof. Brooker is the Reconsidering Dementia Book Series editor for Open University Press. She was made an MBE for services to those affected by dementia in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours in 2021.

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Prof. Helen Chan’s research interests focus on aged care and long-term care. She was a pioneer in the healthcare field, studying the acceptance and effects of advance care planning (ACP) in the Chinese population. She has developed a culturally sensitive ACP intervention and tested it among various patient groups, including dementia, cancer and COPD. She has also co-designed various educational materials with stakeholders to raise awareness and build capacity related to ACP in health and social care disciplines. These works have been adopted in diverse care settings and contributed to service and policy development at the regional and international levels. She was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2021 and awarded the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing in 2024 and other awards in recognition of her research capability and contribution to the society. Currently, she is an Editor for Journal of Clinical Nursing and an editorial member for Journal of Nursing Ethics. She also serves as an honorary advisor of elderly services for various non-government organizations, including Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, Hong Kong YWCA, Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing and Jockey Club CADENZA Hub, and a Council Member of Hong Kong Association of Gerontology.

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Dr. Kenny Chui, a distinguished dementia care specialist, boasts an impressive academic background, having received three Master’s degrees and culminating in his Doctor of Philosophy in Social Welfare focused on personhood dementia care from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2019.

With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Chui has dedicated his career to addressing the needs of individuals with dementia and their families. His expertise spans various domains, from direct dementia services to academic research, consultative training, public education, project management, and advocacy. Dr. Chui’s groundbreaking initiative, “DemenTitude® – the 16 principles of proper caring attitude in dementia,” is a testament to his commitment to enhancing dementia education and fostering compassionate care practices.

Currently serving as the Deputy General Manager of JCCPA and the Co-director of the Advanced Diploma Programme in Dementia Care at the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dr. Chui contributes his efforts to enhance dementia services in Hong Kong. His partnership with the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) of the University of Stirling led to the successful launch of a three-year Best Practice in Dementia Care Programme, aimed at bolstering staff capabilities in Chinese communities.

In 2019, Dr. Chui’s exceptional work in the field of social work was acknowledged when he was named the 28th Outstanding Social Worker in Hong Kong. He was also appointed as an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Stirling and as an International Advisor of Dementia Alliance International. He was appointed as an expert panel member of the Hong Kong Guardianship Board in 2023.

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Prof. Kenneth Fong is Professor and Associate Head (Research, Innovation, and Knowledge Transfer), Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, and Director of the Research Centre for Assistive Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the management committee member of the Research Institute in AIoT, and management committee member of the University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN). He is now the Editor-in-Chief of Hong Kong Journal of Occupational Therapy (HKJOT).  He received the Department Outstanding Teaching Award in 2011, the Department Outstanding Team Teaching Award in 2018, and the Faculty Team Teaching Award of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences in 2010 and 2019 respectively. His undergraduate and postgraduate students have received numerous awards in both local and international competitions. Recently he received the 2024 best paper award from the UBSN of PolyU, and is awarded the 2024 World’s Top 2% Scientists (Rehabilitation) by Stanford.

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Ms. Florence Ho has been serving in dementia-care sector for over 20 years. She is the General Manager of Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing. Ms. Ho leads the professional team to provide quality care services, as well as expands and develops diversified, innovative and pilot projects to support the people with dementia. The projects include “The Jockey Club Discharge Support and Rehabilitation Programme” which aims to help people with dementia to rehabilitate and adapt to home life after hospitalisation, “The Jockey Club Post-diagnostic Support in Dementia Care Programme” which aims to provide support for people with mild cognitive impairment, mild dementia, and their caregivers, “The Jockey Club Caring Community for Dementia Campaign” which aims to rally the general public and make use of technology to find people with dementia who have gotten lost, and the film “A Pair” to promote restraint free care services. Dementia affects not only the people living with it but also their entire family.  Ms. Ho, therefore, actively develops various services to support caregivers and promote dementia-friendly community, aiming to holistically take care of the welfare of the people with dementia. Her wish is to create dementia friendly environment in HK to promote independent living in the community and also, to get rid of the restrainers which are heavily imposed on the persons with dementia in the age care facilities in Hong Kong.   

In order to cope with the increasing number of people with dementia due to the growing ageing population, Ms. Ho actively explores and promotes local staff training, and introduces professional training courses from UK and other countries to the local staff, hoping to improve the overall quality of dementia-care services in Hong Kong.

Ms. Ho also serves as the General Manager of Jockey Club Cadenza Hub which focuses on health management of the middle aged to the elderly. The Hub aims to enhance the public awareness towards health and encourage the public to build healthy living styles as early as possible so as to better prepare for the healthy ageing.

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Prof. Rainbow Ho is a Professor at the Department of Social Work & Social Administration, and Director of the Centre on Behavioral Health at the University of Hong Kong. She has background in performing arts, biomedical sciences, and social sciences. Prof. Ho has extensive research and clinical experiences in holistic wellness and expressive arts therapies, as well as in the fields of arts, humanities, biomedical, and social sciences. She has been the principal investigator of many major research projects related to mind-body practices e.g., mindfulness, yoga, qigong and taichi, and arts-based interventions for healthy and clinical populations across the life span.  

Prof. Ho has published more than 200 academic papers, book chapters, and encyclopaedias related to behavioral health, integrative health practices, mind-body medicine, and arts-based therapies. She is also a highly sought-after keynote speaker at major international conferences related to psychotherapy, creative arts therapy, behavioral health, and holistic medicine.

Prof. Ho’s work has been recognized as cutting-edge and highly original. She has received the research awards from the American Dance Therapy Association (2015 & 2019), and the Outstanding Achievement Award and Research Award from the American Dance Therapy Association (2015). The Research and Development Award from the Australia and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association (2016); she also received 2015 Social Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award,  2020 Outstanding Research Output Award, 2021 Knowledge Exchange Award and 2022 Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award from The University of Hong Kong. Prof. Ho is currently the steering committee member and affiliate researcher of the WHO Jameel Arts and Health lab, and also the core member of the International Research Alliance of Creative Arts Therapies, and Neurosciences meet Dance in Therapy Network.

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Prof. Kong is presently an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate the intersections of sociocultural characteristics, family caregiving, and health among older adults and their family caregivers globally, including the United States, mainland China, and Hong Kong. Alongside cross-national comparative research, another focus of my work is to support older adults and their family care partners in managing dementia, effectively adapting to the condition, and thereby enhancing the well-being of both individuals living with dementia and their care partners. Ultimately, the goal of her work is to create culturally appropriate dyadic interventions for older adults and their care partners afflicted with chronic illnesses in Chinese societies, including dementia and cancer.

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Prof. Timothy Kwok has rich experience in geriatric medicine field, he graduated from University of Leicester, the United Kingdom and received specialist training in Geriatric and Internal Medicine in St George’s Hospital in London before returning to Hong Kong. He obtained his doctorate in Medicine from the University of Leicester, the United Kingdom in 2004. Prof. Kwok is a Professor of the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and honorary consultant geriatrician of Hospital Authority. Besides, he is the Director of Jockey Club Centre for Osteoporosis Care and Control (JOCOC) and Deputy Director of CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing.

Prof. Kwok is the Director of JCCPA since 2004. He established JCCPA into a comprehensive care center in dementia based on the person-centred care, which has played a leading role in dementia service, training and research in Hong Kong. In recent years, Prof. Kwok is dedicated to enhance public awareness of dementia to develop Hong Kong into a dementia-friendly city.

Prof. Kwok has published over 200 research papers on the international journals through evidence-based research. Research topics currently underway include: the preventive strategies of dementia, bone fracture risk prediction, the frailty of older adults, restraints reduction and patient autonomy act, etc. Besides, the book “Growing Old Gracefully”, which was dictated by Prof. Kwok, was published in 2019 and he has shared his experience and views on how to establish a dementia-friendly hospital and holistic strategies for active ageing.

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Dr. Allen Lee is a tenured Associate Professor (Clinical) in the Department of Psychiatry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Driven by a strong commitment to moderating dementia incidence in our ageing society, Dr. Lee is dedicated to finding novel strategies to help older adults lower their dementia risk.

Among his major research achievements is a large-scale, territory-wide, population-based epidemiological study conducted alongside Prof. Linda Lam from CUHK and the Department of Health of the Government of Hong Kong. This study followed over 18,000 local older adults for more than 15 years, identifying previously unrecognized risk and protective factors for dementia and providing deeper insights into how these factors can be modified for dementia prevention. His work underscored the importance of intellectual activities in slowing cognitive decline, elucidated the relationship between depression and dementia, and identified visual impairment as a major risk factor for dementia.

His publications in high-impact international journals such as JAMA Psychiatry, The Lancet’s eBioMedicine, and Age and Ageing have established him as a leading expert in dementia prevention. His work has attracted widespread attention from local, national, and international media, including TIME magazine and Consumer Reports. His research has been featured in JAMA Network Learning, NEJM Journal Watch, and cited in the Lancet Commission Report on Dementia Prevention in 2020 and 2024. He has also contributed to the World Alzheimer Report 2022 and authored five book chapters on dementia management.

In his professional roles, Dr. Lee serves as a Consultant at the CUHK Medical Centre, President of the Chinese Dementia Research Association, and a Council Member of the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists. He was awarded the Distinguished Young Fellow by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2017 and received the highest postgraduate research degree, Doctor of Medicine (MD), from CUHK in 2022.

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Dr. Jenny Lee graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a Consultant Geriatrician and the head of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine in Tai Po Hospital and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospitals. She is the immediate past President of the Hong Kong Geriatrics Society and the Chinese Dementia Research Association.

Dr. Lee obtained her MD degree in the Chinese University of Hong Kong under Prof. Jean Woo. She collaborates closely with the Institute of Aging in the Chinese University in projects focusing on geriatric medicine and clinical services. She is active in research and has numerous publications in old age epidemiology, frailty, health services research, dementia, end of life care and nutrition.

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Prof. Lou Vivian W. Q. is the Director of Sau Po Centre on Ageing, and Professor at Department of Social Work & Social Administration at The University of Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on family gerontology, in particular family caregiving for dementia, stroke, end-of-life older adults, and social adaptation and mental health of Chinese older adults and family caregivers. She has committed to crosssector collaboration with community partners, social enterprises, and the market. Prof. Lou was appointed as a member of Elderly Commission and Statistics Advisory Board. She is now a member Community Investment and Inclusion Fund, Senior Police Call Central Advisory Board, and Elderly Academy Development Foundation of the HKSAR Government. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and a Council member of Hong Kong Association of Gerontology and Consortium of Institutes of Family Limited (CIFA). Prof. Lou is recognized as Healthy Ageing 50 leaders transforming the world to be a better place in which to grow older in 2022, Woman Change Maker in STEM in 2023, Ageing Asia global Ageing Influencer 2024, Golden Age Foundation Smart Ageing Champion – Academia in 2024.

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Prof. Marco Pang is Head of Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Director of University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience (UBSN). He obtained a BSc in Physical Therapy (Distinction) and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Alberta, Canada. His research primarily focuses on stroke rehabilitation and has produced a wealth of publications in highly rated journals.

Prof. Pang’s excellence in research work is internationally recognised. He was ranked among the world’s top 1% most-cited scientists in the field of “Rehabilitation” for two years in a row since 2022, according to a study by a group of scholars in Stanford University. In 2023, he was granted the World Physiotherapy International Service Award for Research, a highly regarded honour that is awarded only once every four years. Prof. Pang is the first physiotherapist from Hong Kong in history to receive this award.  Being a popular speaker, Prof. Pang has been invited to deliver more than 150 lectures and workshops around the world.

Prof. Pang is a leading figure in the field of physiotherapy, both locally and globally. He was elected as the President of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association four times since 2017. Prof. Pang is the first physiotherapist from Hong Kong to hold the prestigious position as an Executive Board Member of World Physiotherapy in 2017-2019. He is currently the elected Chair of the World Physiotherapy Asia Western Pacific (AWP) Region of World Physiotherapy.

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Dr. Wong’s research aims to apply knowledge in Psychology, Psychiatry and Social Work to improve wellbeing of people with mental health conditions. Her previous government consultancy has facilitated the routine provision of the Dementia Community Support Scheme, improving access to care and intervention for 2,000 families living with dementia every year. Since 2016, she has been leading as co-Principal Investigator the JC JoyAge project, a collaborative stepped-care model tailored for the Hong Kong service systems, providing preventive care for thousands of older people at risk of depression. In 2024, Dr. Wong was awarded Rosie Young 90 Medal for Outstanding Young Woman Scholar for her societal impact. She has been awarded as Principal Investigator/Coordinator and Co-Principal Investigator a total amount of over HK$3.22b. Her research has resulted in over 140 publications. Her latest title is Casebook of Dementia: A Reference Guide for Primary Care by Cambridge University Press. Dr. Wong is currently an Executive Board member of Hong Kong Alzheimer’s Disease Association and Director of Training for Cognitive Stimulation Therapy-Hong Kong, supporting professional training and public education in Chinese communities.

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Ms. Bel Wong is an experienced researcher working on dementia research. She joined the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing since 2012 and currently holds the position of Research Manager. Ms. Wong completed her Master’s degree in Social Sciences (Counselling) and her Bachelor’s degree in Arts at The University of Hong Kong.

Ms. Wong’s research interests are transitional care model for people with dementia, post-diagnostic support for people with dementia, restraint reduction in dementia contexts, and best practices in dementia care for formal and informal caregivers. She is passionate about improving the quality of dementia care in Hong Kong by developing evidence-based dementia care and caregiver training models.

Ms. Wong’s research studies have been published in various peer-reviewed journals, and she has presented her works as oral and poster presentations at international conferences such as the IPA Congress and Global Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International. Ms. Wong is also involved in lecturing in the Advanced Diploma Programme in Dementia Care, which is organized by the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and co-organized by Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing.

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Prof. Jean Woo graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1974. After medical posts in the Charing Cross, Hammersmith, and Brompton Hospitals in the UK, she worked in part time posts in general practice as well as research at the University of Hong Kong.

Prof. Woo joined the Department of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1985 as Lecturer responsible for the development of the teaching and service in Geriatric Medicine, becoming Head of the Department in 1993 until 1999, Chief of Service of the Medicine and Geriatric Unit at Shatin Hospital from 1993 to 2012, and Chair Professor of Medicine in 1994. From 2000 to 2006 she was Head of the Department of Community and Family Medicine, from 2001 to 2005 Director of the newly established School of Public Health, and from August 2013 to July 2016 Chairman of the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics. She established the Centre for Nutritional Studies in 1997 using a self financing model to carry out service, education and research; and the Centre for Gerontology and Geriatrics in 1998, offering self-financed courses in Gerontology and Geriatrics, as well as End of Life Care.

Currently she is the Co-Director of CUHK Institute of Health Equity, Director of the Jockey Club Institute of Ageing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Consultant of the Prince of Wales and Shatin Hospitals, Hospital Authority.

Prof. Woo’s research interests include chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes, health services research, nutrition epidemiology and intervention, quality of life issues at the end of life, with over 1000 articles in peer-reviewed indexed journals.

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Prof. Doris Yu is the Chair in Research at the School of Nursing, LKS Faculty of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Sau Po Center on Aging, the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Yu is the Fellow of American Academy of Nursing and the Gerontological Society of American. With a solid research record in healthy aging and chronic disease management model for older adults, Prof. Yu has been awarded with over USD 15M external reserch fund. Her research work on aging has published widely in high impact international referred jornals in nursing, gerontology and cardiology. She is listed as World’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientist by the Standford Univerity from 2000-2024 and is the Editor of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Prof. Yu is very enthusiastic to promote evidence-based practice. She has actively engaged in promoting evidence-based aged care. She serves as a number of expert advisory panels of both government and non-government sectors to support priority-setting for aged care policy and service. Over the years, Prof. Yu actively engages in science implementation and has developed various territory-wide evidence-based programs to increase the preparedness of rapid population aging in the educational and healthcare pursuits.

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Ms. Yu is a PhD candidate in the Division of Psychiatry at University College London (UCL), specialising in the use of technology for dementia and prevention. Her PhD research focuses on developing a cognitive training game app aimed at preventing dementia, supervised by Prof. Sergi Costafreda and Gill Livingston. In addition to her PhD work, Ms. Yu co-supervises MSc students at UCL on research projects related to dementia prevention. With extensive experience in aging and dementia research since 2015, spanning universities in both Hong Kong and the UK, Ms. Yu has authored more than 16 papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

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Prof. Peter P. Yuen is Dean of the College of Professional and Continuing Education (CPCE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He is also Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing of PolyU. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Master in Business Administration degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Health Economics from the University of Birmingham. He is a founding Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Health Services Executives, and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian College of Health Services Management. Prof. Yuen’s research involves public policy formulation and evaluation, and health services management. He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Public Administration and Policy, an Editorial Committee member of Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management.

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Prof. Yongping Zheng, Henry G. Leong Professor in Biomedical Engineering, is currently a Chair Professor of Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and he is also the Director of Research Institute for Smart Ageing and Director of Jockey Club Smart Ageing Hub. Prof. Yongping Zheng received the BSc and MEng in Electronics and Information Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China. He received PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from PolyU in 1997. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Windsor, Canada, he joined PolyU as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Professor in 2008 and Chair Professor in 2019, respectively. He was the Associate Director of the Research Institute of Innovative Products in PolyU from 2008 to 2010. He served as the Founding Head of Department of Biomedical Engineering during 2012-2020.

Prof. Zheng’s main research interests include biomedical ultrasound and smart aging technologies. He was rated as the top 2% citation scholar in a survey conducted by Stanford University in 2021-2023. He has trained 20 PhD and 10 MPhil graduates as Chief Supervisor. He also owned more than 60 patent families, published over 310 journal papers, and wrote two books, a number of technologies invented by his team have been successfully commercialized. His inventions have won many international and local awards, including the inaugural Bank of China Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Prize in 2022.

Prof. Zheng is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE), past Secretary of World Association of Chinese Biomedical Engineers (2017-2019), past Chair of Biomedical Engineering Division of HKIE,and Honorary Advisors of Hong Kong Federation of Senior Citizen Industries and Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industry Association. He also serves as the President of Guangdong Hong Kong Macau Chapter of the International Society of Gerontechnology. 

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We are in the process of finalizing additional distinguished members of the Scientific Committee. Please check back soon for updates!

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