Hong Kong Alumni Chapter Annual Dinner 2023

Dr. Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Waterloo

Dr. Vivek Goel is the University of Waterloo's President and Vice-Chancellor. He has held a number of senior leadership roles at the University of Toronto including as VicePresident and Provost and most recently as Vice-President Research and Innovation. He served as founding President and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014 and also as a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Goel has served as Chief Academic Strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses. Goel obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Goel obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Community Health from U of T and a master’s degree (MS) in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health.

Donna Strickland, Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo; Nobel Laureate, Physics 2018

Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester.

Strickland earned a B.Eng. from McMaster University and a PhD in optics from the University of Rochester. Strickland was a research associate at the National Research Council Canada, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a member of technical staff at Princeton University. In 1997, she joined the University of Waterloo, where her ultrafast laser group develops high-intensity laser systems for nonlinear optics investigations.

Strickland served as the president of the Optical Society (OSA) in 2013 and is a fellow of OSA, SPIE, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society. She is an honorary fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Physics and an international member of the US National Academy of Science. Strickland was named a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Ronald Li (BSc 1994), PhD; CEO and Founder, Medera Biopharm

Ronald Li is an internationally recognized expert in cardiac electrophysiology, human heart cell/ tissue engineering and pluripotent stem cells with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He is a professor-turned serial entrepreneur with experiences in public listing, M&A, privatization, etc. His work includes: Founder and Board Member of Xellera Therapeutics, CEO and Founder of Novoheart, CSO and coFounder of Sardocor, Former Director of Ming-Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (KI), HK/Sweden, Former Assistant, Associate and Full Professor of Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Davis and Mount Sinai Hospital of New York.

Ronald has been recognized with: Best Study of the Year (2005) and Ground-breaking Study of the Year (2006), American Heart Association, Top Young Faculty Award (2002, 2004), Top Young Investigator (2001), Top Postdoc Fellow (2001) of Johns Hopkins University, Young Investigator Award 1st Prize, Heart Rhythm Society (2002), Hong Kong Spirit Innovation for Good (2015), South China Morning Post, Distinguished Alumnus of University of Waterloo (2018), Distinguished Visiting Professor of University of Toronto

Ben Thompson, CEO and Scientific Director at the Centre for Eye and Vision Research Hong Kong

Ben Thompson is a Professor and University Research Chair within the School of Optometry at the University of Waterloo. Ben is also the CEO and Scientific Director of the Centre for Eye and Vision Research in Hong Kong, a collaborative initiative between The University of Waterloo and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University funded by the Hong Kong Government’s InnoHK initiative.

Ben’s research interests encompass human visual development and neuroplasticity. He has published over 170 journal articles and supervised over 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Ben’s research has led to a promising new video-game based treatment for a vision disorder called amblyopia (sometimes referred to as “lazy eye”) that was acquired by Novartis. Ben has also co-invented new technology for the assessment of vision in children that is undergoing commercialization. More recently, Ben has led the development of new techniques for improving vision in older adults with macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes central vision loss. Ben holds appointments as an Honorary Professor at the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand and as an Adjunct Professor at the School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University.