e-Bulletin April 2025

Promotion of Professor Hui-ling Yen
Celebrating a Remarkable Career Milestone

We are pleased to share the news that Professor Hui-ling Yen has been promoted to Professor with effect from March 2025.

Professor Yen joined the University in 2009 as a Research Assistant Professor and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2012 and Associate Professor in 2018. Her research focuses on understanding factors driving respiratory virus transmission through laboratory and field studies, aiming to disrupt the “agent-host-environment interactions” critical for viral spread. Her work has significantly advanced the understanding of transmission of influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Professor Yen’s research expertise centers around the use of animal models to study viral pathogenesis and transmission. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her ground-breaking research using the golden hamster model, published in Nature (2020), provided critical insights into SARS-CoV-2 transmission and pathogenesis, shaping global public health responses. Additionally, she works with interdisciplinary teams to study transmission modes within and between species, viral adaptation during host switching, and molecular changes linked to antiviral resistance.

On teaching, Professor Yen is the lead course coordinator for “Emerging Infectious Diseases and One Health” in the MPH curriculum and “Outbreak Investigations” in the MBBS curriculum.

Professor Yen’s exceptional contributions have been widely recognised. She has been listed as one of the world’s top 1% scholars and a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Clarivate in recent years. In 2024, she was awarded the HKU Rosie Young 90 Medal for Outstanding Young Woman Scholar. She also serves as a committee member of the antiviral group at the International Society for Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus Diseases (ISIRV) and contributes to WHO working groups.

The School extends our heartfelt congratulations to Professor Yen on this significant milestone in her career.