"Mr Lam Woo was a well-known builder at the turn of the twentieth century in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. He was the founder of the YMCA and many churches and schools in Hong Kong.
The Lam Woo Foundation supports education, social welfare and medical facilities in both China and Hong Kong. Biomedical engineering encompasses engineering and medicine, leading to numerous advances in diagnosis and treatment. It is most appropriate for us to endow this professorship."
Lam Woo Foundation
Lam Woo Professorship in Biomedical Engineering
The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering was established in 1961. Over the last few decades, its graduates have been serving the society in key positions and have made tremendous impact to the development of Hong Kong in its evolution from an industrial-based to knowledge-based economy.
Professor Ed Wu completed his undergraduate study in Mainland China in 1984, and then went to the US to obtain MPhil from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PhD from the University of California, Irvine. In 1993, he joined Columbia University as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering. From 1990 to 1998, he was the lead technical member in developing the world’s first 3D positron emission tomography (PET) system and an ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system at Columbia University. From 1999 to 2004, he was the founding Director of NMR Microimaging Laboratory and served as a core member of Columbia Integrated Imaging Center.
Professor Wu returned to Asia and joined The University of Hong Kong in 2003. At present, he is the founding Director of Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, and Director of Medical Engineering Programme, an inter-department and inter-faculty undergraduate programme. Professor Wu’s research focus is biomedical imaging, particularly the development of high-field MRI methodologies for visualising and quantifying the tissue microstructure, physiology and functions in vivo in both humans and disease models.
Professor Wu is at the forefront of MRI research. He is a prolific investigator, and internationally recognised for his seminal contributions to MRI, including MRI engineering, magnetic resonance diffusion and spectroscopy, cellular and functional MRI. These contributions have impacted the evolution of modern MRI technologies and their applications in healthcare and preclinical sciences. Professor Wu is the Asia-Pacific Editor of NMR in Biomedicine, a leading journal dedicated to MRI and spectroscopy. He is an elected Fellow of International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
Regionally, Professor Wu is the recipient of the 2009 Outstanding Researcher Award from HKU and 2012 Croucher Senior Research Fellowship from Croucher Foundation. Professor Wu’s scientific and technical insights have been widely sought by local corporations, including leading medical imaging system companies in Mainland China.
Ed X Wu