Prof. Mary Sau-Man Ip

Professor Mary Sau-Man Ip graduated from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1978. She initially worked as medical officer in the University Medical Unit at Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) and subsequently joined her alma mater as academic staff in 1985. She served as Associate Dean in Education at the Medical Faculty for 13 years, and recently as Head of Medicine from 2016 to 2019. She has been Chief of Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at QMH, HKU since 2008.

Professor Ip pioneered research in sleep-disordered breathing in Hong Kong in the 1990s. At that time, obstructive sleep apnea was not well recognized in the Asian community until she drew attention to the problem. In the late 1990s, she led a ground-breaking study of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in Hong Kong in which more than 1,500 middle-aged community-based adults were surveyed and clinically assessed. Since then, this hitherto under-appreciated medical condition became progressively known by the professional community and the public in Hong Kong. Her subsequent work on the association of sleep apnea with cardio-metabolic disorders, in particular glucose metabolism, is internationally recognized. Other than sleep disordered breathing, she has avid clinical interests in clinical medicine, and mentors or participates in clinical research projects in a range of respiratory diseases. She has also led the local professional societies in Hong Kong in multi-centre studies to establish updated reference values for lung function in adults and children for territory-wide clinical application, which also subsequently contributed to the formulation of multi-ethnic reference sets.

With such tremendous research contributions to research and professional education, she was awarded the APSR Harasawa Award for Research Excellence in 2010 and the APSR Medal in 2013. She was also President of the APSR from 2010 to 2012, and is currently Chairperson of the APSR Strategic Planning Committee.

With all the above engagement, Prof Ip is always being seen as an all-rounded academic leader who can steer impactful clinical research, innovate professional education and administrative roles in clinical respiratory medicine. She is able to inspire and motivate the next generation of healthcare professionals to engage in the advancement in respiratory medicine.