Isabella POON Wai-yin

Professor Isabella Poon Wai-yin is currently the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Wei Lun Professor of Statistics of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

Professor Poon obtained her BSc in Mathematics and MPhil in Statistics from CUHK, and a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of California at Los Angeles. She joined CUHK and has served as the Associate Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Science between 2004 and 2014 and the Director of the Centre for Promoting Science Education between 2006 and 2014. She was also the Director of Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research between 2012 and 2015, and was appointed as the Associate Vice-President in 2014 and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 2015, exerting leadership in teaching and learning at the university level.

Professor Poon's research has focused on mathematical and statistical methods for analysing nonstandard data, and applications of statistical methods in behavioural science and medical research. Her outstanding teaching has earned a number of accolades. She was conferred the inaugural University Grants Committee Teaching Award in 2011. She was also the recipient of the CUHK Faculty of Science Exemplary Teaching Award (1999-2000), (2002-03) and (2013-14), the Best Teaching Award from the Asia Pacific Institute of Business, CUHK (2005-06) and (2008-09), as well as the Vice-Chancellor's Exemplary Teaching Award (2014). She was awarded the Outstanding Fellowship of the Faculty of Science in 2014 and 2019.

Professor Poon serves in various committees related to education and the statistics profession. She is the Chair of the Hong Kong Teaching Excellence Alliance, and a member of the Education Bureau Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education as well as the Statistics Advisory Board of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.