Prof. Mai-har Sham Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research),  The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Professor Sham Mai-har has been the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Choh-Ming Li Professor of Biomedical Sciences of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) since 2020. She completed her undergraduate and MPhil studies at CUHK in 1981 and 1983 respectively. She then obtained a scholarship from the Croucher Foundation to pursue her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, and had postdoctoral training in developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research, UK. Before joining CUHK, she was Associate Vice-President (Research) and a Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). As PVC (Research) in CUHK, Professor Sham oversees the strategic development of research and innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer and research impact in the University. She manages research institutes and centres as well as research support services for technology transfer, intellectual property management, start-ups and commercialization platforms. She is also responsible for the administration of research fundings and matters relating to research policies and research data management.

As a developmental geneticist, Professor Sham leads a research team focusing on the molecular mechanisms of mammalian development and human congenital disorders. Her research covers areas of gene regulation and molecular signaling, craniofacial and hearing disorders, genetic bases and mutant mouse models of rare human diseases, stem cells, and tissue regeneration. She is currently the President of the Hong Kong Society for Developmental Biology. She serves as an Associate Editor for Gene Expression Patterns and an Editor for Cell and Bioscience.