Professor Sophia Chan is currently Professor in Nursing and Senior Advisor to the President’s Office at the University of Hong Kong. Professor CHAN was appointed by the HK SAR Government to be Under Secretary for Food and Health (USFH) from 2012-2017, and Secretary for Food and Health (SFH) from 2017-2022. She was the first nurse appointed in this ministerial position. She has led the Food and Health (FHB) in making remarkable contribution in the formulation and implementation of various major policies on health, food and environmental hygiene, such as primary health care development as well as the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. During her tenure as SFH, she has made exemplary efforts and policy initiatives in protecting and promoting the health of the population through major policy initiatives such as embarking on a new journey in primary health care by developing District Health Centres (DHCs) in each district in Hong Kong, developing the first Chinese Medicine Hospital, opening the first Children Hospital, and developed the Hong Kong Cancer Strategy 2019, and banning E-cigarettes and Heated Tobacco Products in Hong Kong.

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Before the Government appointment, Professor Chan was the Head of Department of Nursing Studies/School of Nursing of HKU from 2002 to 2011 and an Assistant Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of HKU from 2001 to 2012. Professor Chan was trained in and practised general and paediatric nursing in Hong Kong and London. She got her Master of Education from the University of Manchester, Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Hong Kong.​

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Professor Chan is one of the leading Nurse Scientists locally and internationally and was named among the world’s top 2% most cited scientists in her specialty areas by Stanford University in 2020. Her research specialises in public health, management of tobacco dependency, and prevention of second-hand smoke exposure in children. She has always been the top-funded researcher in HKU School of Nursing and has led many external competitive grants including GRF, HMRF, and commissioned grants from the Government, Hong Kong Jockey Club and various key organisations locally and internationally.  She is a pioneer and founding directors of a number of signature research and training programmes in tobacco dependency therapeutic interventions, and her findings has transformed smoking cessation services and tobacco control policies. She developed various novel smoking cessation models through individual and clustered randomised controlled trials and compare ethno-cultural differences between Chinese and other smokers through epidemiological and social science methodologies. She proposes novel scientific insights, and has published extensively with over 230 peer-reviewed scientific papers with more than 3,800 citations.​

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Professor Chan’s pedagogy has been recognised by the award of Best Teacher 1996, Faculty Teaching Medal in 2005 and Outstanding Teaching Award in 2009, one of the highest honour for teaching achievements conferred by HKU. She consults widely nationally and internationally and has represented the University and the Food and Health Bureau of the HKSAR Government in international meetings and invited by the World Health Organization to provide professional advice and leadership on their public health and tobacco control initiatives. She was awarded a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (through distinction) and Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Physicians of United Kingdom (FFPH (RCP)(UK)) and was the first nurse in Hong Kong being awarded the Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN).