Hong Chang, MD, PhD, FRCPDC

Excellence in Linking Undergraduate Life Sciences Teaching to Research Award

Affiliation(s):     Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network

Context(s) for Award:     Exemplary teaching and mentorship in the Project in Pathobiology research course (LMP405Y1) and the Summer Student Research Program.

Dr. Chang received his MD from Jiangxi Medical University in China, and both his MSc and PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. He then trained and specialized in Hematological Pathology and joined the faculty as a laboratory physician at the Toronto General Hospital/University Health Network (UHN) in 1998. Currently, Dr. Chang is a hematopathologist at UHN and Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. He teaches research courses in Life Sciences and supervises students in summer research programs at University of Toronto. Dr. Chang’s research has mainly dealt with the characterization of genetic events for initiation and progression of multiple myeloma (MM) as well as identification of molecular prognostic factors and therapeutic targets in MM. He is an international expert in hematological pathology and myeloma research. He serves on the Editorial Board of several scientific journals and has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers.

Reflection
I enjoy interacting with students as individuals, I perceive my role as a mentor who encourages them to develop their own goals, confidence in their own abilities, self-sufficiency and independent thought. I strongly believe that a teacher not only passes the knowledge to the students, but more importantly trains them how to obtain the knowledge, and prepare them for the challenges ahead to reach their goals in future.