After a controversial selection process, newly elected Baptist University president Professor Albert Chan Sun-chi voiced his ambition yesterday to take the university's achievements in Chinese medicine and pharmacy onto the global stage.
The chemist was unanimously approved by the university's council as new president and vice-chancellor yesterday - not without criticism from staff and students, who said the process was opaque, had scant involvement of them, and that he was the only candidate for approval.
Chan is currently the vice-president at Polytechnic University. He will take over from retiring president Professor Ng ching-fai in July next year and serve for five years.
With his background in Chinese medicine, Chan vowed to incorporate the traditional medicine into modern science, and make it world-class. 'Chinese medicine and pharmacy are the university's strengths. Chinese medical institutes on the mainland are focused on the subject while lacking technological backup to take it further, and foreign institutes still have to catch up on their knowledge, but Hong Kong is in a good position to develop Chinese medicine,' he said.
Chan is the founding director of the State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology, Shenzhen, and the founding dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University.
A group of 10 students protested.