The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, established in 2001 at The University of Hong Kong, has a mission to promote innovative, multi-disciplinary research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences. Focusing on China in Asia and in the world from both historical and contemporary perspectives, it supports diverse platforms for a critical community of scholars to share experiences across the globe. After incorporating the Centre of Asian Studies (established in 1967) in 2009, the enhanced Institute now provides a robust platform for Asian and China studies, well connected at The University of Hong Kong and with global academic partners.

Professor Angela Leung joined the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences in January 2011 as its first full-time director. Her present research focus is on diseases and medical culture in South China, in particular the Canton/ Hong Kong region, in the global and colonial context in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her broader interests are on the history of science, medicine and technology in premodern and modern East Asia.

She received her BA in history at The University of Hong Kong and her doctoral degree in History at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. She was research fellow at the Academia Sinica of Taipei and has taught in the History Department of the National Taiwan University until 2008 when she became the Chair Professor of the History Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In July 2010, she was elected Academician of the Academia Sinica.

Professor Leung was the Vice-President of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (2004-2008), and is at present a Jury Member of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (the French equivalent of RGC), a Panel Member of the European Research Council, and a trustee of the D. Kim Foundation of the History of Science and Technology in East Asia.

Professor Leung is a pioneer in the history of Chinese philanthropy and has published influential books and articles in English, Chinese and French on charitable organisations in late imperial and modern China. She is also a leading scholar in the history of medicine and diseases in China. Her recent book, Leprosy in China: A History stands as the only comprehensive book on a single disease in Chinese history available in English. Her co-edited volume, Health and Hygiene in East Asia: Policies and Publics in the Long Twentieth Century, puts together cutting-edge research by Asian and Western scholars on the history of health concepts and practices in modern East Asia.

Professor Leung is also an active public lecturer on the history of medicine and diseases. In an event co-organised by Hong Kong Museum of History and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in January this year she spoke on "The Role of the Hospital in the Life of Hong Kong Population in the Early 20th Century as Revealed by the Kwong Wah Hospital Archive".