Congratulations to Professor Paul Tam for receiving the Denis Browne Gold Medal
The Denis Browne Gold Medal commemorates Sir Denis Browne (1892-1967), the first President of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons. Sir Denis was one of the pioneers of British paediatric surgery and was associated for many years with the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street, London.
The award is made annually to mark outstanding contributions to paediatric surgery world wide. The award is usually made at the Annual Congress.
Professor Paul Kwong Hang TAM, MBBS(HK); ChM(Liv); FRCS(Eng, Edin, Glas, and Ire); FRCPCH; FHKAM (Surgery) is a surgeon, scientist, educator and university leader. He has been Chair of Paediatric Surgery at The University of Hong Kong since 1996 and Li Shu-Pui Professor in Surgery since 2013. He was the Vice- President for Research (2003-2015) and is currently Interim Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.
He is also a recipient of the Croucher Advanced Study Institute grants in 2000.
Professor Tam graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 1976, and worked in the Department of Surgery until 1986. He was Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool in 1986-90, and Reader and Director of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Oxford in 1990-96. Professor Tam has special interests in minimally invasive surgery, genetics and regenerative medicine of birth defects such as Hirschsprung’s disease. He has published 404 articles in internationally refereed journals with 21267 citations and h-index = 48. He is ranked amongst the top 1% of most-cited scientists (ESI) and has been awarded grants totaling more than US$20m. He serves on many international professional associations and was President of the Pacific Association of Paediatric Surgeons (2008-2009). He also serves on editorial boards of several international journals including the Journal of Pediatric Surgery as the Editor for Asia, and the International Advisory Board of the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
He has given invited lectures at APSA, BAPS, EUPSA, AAPS, Nature Forum and Days of Molecular Medicine. He has received numerous awards including the BAPS Prize, Lifetime Achievement Award (AAPS) and Honorary Fellowship of the American Surgical Association. He is particularly gratified to have led a number of projects in developing paediatric surgery in less affluent communities especially in China in the past two decades. He has also nurtured a generation of over 2000 paediatric surgeons in China through a training programme with far-reaching impact. He played a key role in bringing Karolinska Institutet, the academic home for the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, to establish its only footprint outside Sweden in Hong Kong. He is happily married to Amy (an acclaimed actress) for 35 years with 2 lovely daughters, Greta (a public health doctor) and Isabel (a barrister).