Gabriel Leung

Leung was born in Hong Kong and studied at Wah Yan College.[3] He continued his education at Stonyhurst College in the United Kingdom (1986-1989)[5] and Crescent School in Canada (1990).[6]

When his family moved to Canada due to his father's job with a multinational company,[7] Leung entered the medical school at the University of Western Ontario. Initially majoring in neurosurgery, he eventually switched to public health and completed his family medicine residency training in Toronto.[3] He then received a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University in 1999.,[8] and earned a research doctorate (Doctor of Medicine) at the University of Hong Kong[1]

Leung joined the HKU medical faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine (now part of the School of Public Health) in 1999 and became an associate professor when the School of Public Health was formed in 2004.[9][10] During the SARS outbreak, he established and directed the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group.[11] In 2005, he and Catherine Mary Schooling expanded the Children of 1997 study, which followed 'the majority of all babies born in Hong Kong during April and May 1997',[7] into a life-course epidemiological study.[12]

Leung was a Takemi Fellow at Harvard University from 2004 to 2005,[13][14] and was promoted to full professor in 2006 after returning to HKU.[9] He also served as the Vice President and Censor in Public Health Medicine at the Hong Kong College of Community Medicine from 2006 to 2008.[1]

In 2008, Leung left academia and joined the Government of Hong Kong as the first Under Secretary for Food and Health, during which he led the government's response in the 2009 swine flu H1N1 pandemic. He held the position until 2011 when he was appointed the Director of the Office of the Hong Kong Chief Executive.[1]

He returned to HKU in 2012 as the head of the Department of Community Medicine until 2013, when the department was incorporated into the School of Public Health. He was also the acting director of the School of Public Health during this period.[1][10]

In 2013, Leung was appointed as the 40th Dean of the HKU Faculty of Medicine and Chair Professor of Public Health. At the age of 40, he was the second youngest dean ever appointed at HKU medical faculty.[15]

During his tenure as dean, the Faculty of Medicine launched the Springboard Scholarships and Second Chance Scholarship schemes to recruit students from more diverse backgrounds.[16][17] A number of major changes to the faculty as a whole also took place under Leung's watch, including the amalgamation of Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology into the School of Biomedical Sciences (2015),[18] the founding of the Emergency Medicine Unit (2015),[19] the expansion of the HKU Health System to include Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital as the fourth and newest teaching hospital (2017),[20][21] the introduction of enrichment year in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) curriculum (2018),[22] and the redevelopment of the Sassoon Road Medical Campus (expected to be completed in 2024).[23]

Outside HKU, Leung was the founding chair of the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems Policies from 2010 to 2014, an elected council member of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine from 2012 to 2019, the founding co-director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control from 2014 to 2018, and a member of the University Grants Committee from 2014 to 2019.[1] He is currently serving on the Hospital Authority Board since 2013,[24] the Steering Committee on Primary Healthcare Development since 2017,[25] the Strategic Technical Advisory Committee of the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems Policies since 2018,[1] the Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation since 2020.,[1] and the Global Health Risk Framework Commission.[26] He is also an adjunct professor at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital and an adjunct professorial researcher at the China National Health Development Research Center.[1] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Leung is one of four experts advising the Chief Executive and the Government of Hong Kong.[27]

Academically, Leung was an editor for the Journal of Public Health between 2007 and 2014, the inaugural co-editor of Epidemics, an associate editor of Health Policy. He is currently the founding deputy editor-in-chief of China CDC Weekly and an editor for the British Medical Journal.

Leung's move to the government in 2008 was controversial as HKU retained his professorship,[28] and he held Canadian citizenship at the time. All Principal officials of Hong Kong, including the Secretaries for the Bureaux, must be filled by Chinese citizens without the right of abode in foreign countries.[29] Although Under Secretaries for the Bureax were not a principal official, they may serve as Acting Secretaries when the Secretaries were unable to hold office. He eventually renunciated his Canadian nationality.[30]

On a press conference about the COVID-19 pandemic on 25 January 2020, Leung and attending government officials did not wear face masks while asking the public to do so. He was criticised for claiming he would be unable to speak when wearing a face mask.[31] He apologised the following day.[32]

• National Academy of Medicine elected member, US (2018)[33]
• Non-official Justice of the Peace, Hong Kong (2015)[34]
• Faculty of Public Health Service Award, Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians, UK (2014)[35]
• Gold Bauhinia Star, Hong Kong (2012)[36]
• Official Justice of the Peace, Hong Kong (2008)[35]