Academician Datuk Professor Dr Lai-Meng Looi is Malaysia’s inaugural National Distinguished Professor, positioned at  the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur where she holds a concurrent appointment as senior consultant histopathologist at its teaching hospital.   She studied medicine at the University of Singapore, trained in Surgical Pathology at UM, Royal Postgraduate Medical School (UK) and Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, (USA) and defended her research doctorate at UM.  During her long academic career at UM she has chaired the Medical Centre Research Committee, the Medical Research Ethics Committee/ Institutional Review Board, the Hospital Medical Advisory Committee, UM’s Committee for External Academic Evaluators (Science) and served on the Malaysian Medical Council.  Her research interest is on amyloidosis, nephropathology and oncopathology.

Professor Looi is a Foundation Fellow and Academician of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia.  She co-chaired the InterAcademy Medical Panel (now the InterAcademy Partnership for Health) for two elected terms (2010-2016) and current represents ASM on its Executive Committee. During her terms as co-chair, IAMP extended its initiatives into global health, the social determinants of health, urban health, and young physician leadership capacity-building.  She is the Founding President of the Malaysian College of Pathologists, and was instrumental in establishing pathology laboratory accreditation in Malaysia, the Pathology Act and several National guidelines on medical laboratory practices.  She is Former President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (WASPaLM) and was awarded the WASPaLM Gold-Headed Cane for leadership.  Her contributions to research, education and medical science have been recognised with several accolades including the National Science Award, ASEAN Outstanding Scientist Award and the Merdeka Award 2016 (Health, Science and Technology category) and Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences-Peking Union Medical College.