Professor George Woo, Emeritus Professor and Senior Advisor of the School of Optometry at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), is widely known as the Father of Optometry in Hong Kong and a pivotal figure in eye health and vision science on a global level. After earning his Doctor of Optometry degree from the University of Waterloo, Canada and his MSc and PhD degrees in Physiological Optics from Indiana University, US, he taught in both of his alma maters. In the 1980s, he took a two-year hiatus from his tenure at Waterloo to set up the Department of Diagnostic Sciences at the then Hong Kong Polytechnic and to develop Hong Kong’s first-ever optometry degree programme. In 1997, Professor Woo was appointed Chair Professor of Optometry and Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. He has also pursued clinical excellence outside academia in his capacity as a Director of PolyVision, a one-stop professional eye-care centre he co-founded in 2005.

Informed by his clinical practice and research, Professor Woo has devoted his time and energy for the betterment of eye health and visual welfare around the world, including underprivileged communities in Mainland China. In Hong Kong, he has been an avid advocate for the formalization of Optometric training and recognition of Optometry as a professional eye and vision care practice. He believes qualified Optometrists can help relieve the burden of Ophthalmologists, bring down the overall cost of eye care, and promote eye health of the public at large.

Not only does Professor Woo heal people’s eyes but also their hearts. Being a specialist in low vision, he has encountered patients suffering from vision loss due to conditions like diabetes or stroke. Some of them have found it hard to come to terms with their vision loss and might even develop depression and suicidal thoughts. In 2002, Professor Woo came across a recruitment advertisement for The Samaritans and became a hotline volunteer. He was appointed the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Samaritans from 2015 to 2019, and continues to serve the organization as a hotline volunteer.

To further support eye health-related initiatives and education, Professor Woo and his brother Dr Victor Woo established the K. B. Woo Fund in memory of their father, Mr Keing Bai Woo. They are also the proud donors of PolyU’s K. B. Woo Family Endowed Professorship in Optometry, supporting research in vision science.

In 2020, Professor Woo was honoured with a Hong Kong Humanity Award by Hong Kong Red Cross and Radio Television Hong Kong for his remarkable contribution to eye care, philanthropist endeavours, and volunteering efforts. He was conferred honorary doctorates by the University of Waterloo in 2019 and by the Hong Kong Metropolitan University in 2021.

Chairman Lam, University Council Members, President Teng and Honoured Guests,

I would like to thank The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) for its very kind conferment of a Fellowship upon me, for which I am very touched and most grateful.

This year sees the double anniversaries of the 85th birthday of PolyU and the 45th year of its Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, or FHSS. Twice serving as the Dean of the Faculty, I am pleased to have witnessed FHSS growing from a small teaching unit in the form of the Institute of Medical and Health Care to a full-fledged Faculty providing health science education par excellence and conducting world-leading researches. Credit for this success goes to the many past and current colleagues whose vision, determination, persistence and hard work have driven the continuous development and international standing of the Faculty.

Home to many health disciplines, FHSS is unique at PolyU in having a clinical practice focus in addition to the University’s traditional domains of education and research.

We have world-class educators and researchers in FHSS, as evident from the multitude of awards and research grants our colleagues have won over the years. But we risk stagnating if we do not put as much emphasis on improving clinical practice as we do on enhancing education and research. Excellent clinical service would, of course, benefit the general public directly, which would lead to more recognition of the value of clinical practice accordingly.

Human resources are the most important element in mounting any health science programme. Ideally, in a typical health science school, there should be three kinds of faculty members: 1) scientists, 2) clinicians, and 3) scientist-clinicians or clinician-scientists. Since education, research and clinical practice synergistically benefit one another, it is desirable to have more of our faculty members who have both qualifications in research and licensure as health professionals to fill the role of scientist-clinicians or clinician-scientists. Equal recognition of each of these categories of faculty with the appropriate infrastructure and instrumentation in the various clinics on campus will unlock additional potential and benefit our future graduates and the public enormously. Thank you.