People

Emmanuel is an intensive care unit (ICU) physician with a special interest in critical care organisation, ICU rehabilitation and end-of-life care. He has worked in a number of trauma centres and teaching hospitals across Hong Kong prior to completing his specialty training in intensive care and returning to his alma mater (HKU) as Clinical Assistant Professor of Practice. He is a passionate advocate of multidisciplinary and humanistic approach to clinical care in the ICU. His current research focuses on geriatric critical care and post-ICU outcomes. He is also a keen supporter of medical ethics and humanities education in the HKU MBBS programme.

Yuechan earned her doctoral degree from the University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, she obtained her LLB and MPhil in Criminal Jurisprudence from Beijing Normal University. With a strong research interest in pharmaceutical administration, the medical insurance system, and hospital management policies in China, she is dedicated to utilizing empirical research methods, particularly interviews, to explore the interaction between law and society. Her doctoral thesis focused on the regulatory compliance of retail pharmacies in China, uncovering the impact of institutional and cultural factors on corporate behavior. Currently, she is developing an interest in the law and ethics surrounding emerging health technologies.

James has dual qualification in medical and legal fields. He is a medical graduate of HKU and a Specialist in General Surgery. He also possesses LLB (Hons) degree from the University of London. James has been active in both the medical and the legal circles for many years. His research areas include medicolegal, expert witnesses, healthcare law, healthcare ethics, apologies, apology legislation, negotiation and mediation. He is also interested in disciplinary proceedings and regulators.

Ria is a Lecturer in the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit at the University of Hong Kong where she coordinates History of Medicine teaching and learning. Her research and teaching at HKU is interdisciplinary and considers the complex and dynamic sociocultural, ecological, historical, technological, and medico-scientific determinants of infectious disease emergence and management. She is currently curating the Covid-19 Archive Project to document the coronavirus pandemic, and is completing a book on the History of Malaria in Hong Kong.

Zohar is an emergency medicine physician with a PhD in bioethics from the National University of Singapore and formal undergraduate training in the humanities with a focus on philosophy. He is currently Clinical Practitioner in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Whenever not hiking or running, Zohar researches several topics in bioethics including loneliness and One Health Ethics. His work has been published in the top bioethics journals including the Journal of Medical Ethics, Bioethics, and Public Health Ethics.

Alex is an Australian medical anthropologist who has researched psychedelic substance using networks and practices across the globe. He has published ethnographic research on the intercultural ethics of medical tourism, metaphor and therapeutic literacies in psychedelic medicine, and spirituality and individualism among psychedelic healing groups. His book Global Ayahuasca: Wondrous Visions and Modern Worlds (Stanford University Press, 2024) explores the psychoactive plant brew “ayahuasca” in Peru, Australia, and China. His work is featured in Current Anthropology, Social Science and Medicine, Frontiers in Pharmacology, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and other outlets, and he is co-editor of The World Ayahuasca Diaspora: Controversies and Reinventions (Routledge, 2017).

Michael’s research focuses primarily on the ethical dimensions of community-based and long-term health and social care management, practice and law both in the UK and internationally. The other main area of his current work examines questions about the nature of bioethics, the value of empirical ethics research, and methodological strategies for answering bioethical questions.

Chih-hsing (PhD, London School of Economics) is an Associate Professor/ Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies and the Research Center for Information Technology Innovation (joint appointment), Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She leads research and interdisciplinary collaborations on the governance of genomics and newly emerging technologies, such as biobanks, big data and artificial intelligence (AI). She has been appointed to the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Biobank Ethics and Governance Council and the Review Board for Biobank Accreditation. She has also been appointed as a Member at the National Health Insurance Data Access Committee, and the Consultation and review Board at the National Biobank Consortium of Taiwan. Her works appear in many renowned international journals, such as Nature Genetics, BMC Medical Ethics, Frontiers in Genetics, Computer Law & Security Review, Medical Law International, the Journal of Law, Information and Science, Asian Bioethics Review. Since 2016, she has served as review editor for the Editorial Board of ELSI in Science and Genetics- Frontiers.

Calvin's research focuses on policy and regulatory responses to the normative and social impact of novel health and biotechnologies. His research also includes medical law and ethics, health systems (particularly normative aspects of health insurance and access to healthcare) and global health.