Academic Dean (Social Sciences)
Lam Woo & Co Ltd Chair Professor of Social Policy

David R Phillips (BScEcon, PhD, University of Wales) has been Chair Professor of Social Policy at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, since 1997 and Dean of Social Sciences since 2004. He was Head of the Department of Politics and Sociology from 1999 to 2004.

His research and teaching interests are in health, health care and social epidemiology, and social gerontology. Specific research interests currently include work-life balance, stress and quality of life, older consumers, social and spatial variations in health and health services, and the environment and health. At Lingnan University, he established the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS) in 1997 and was Founder Co-ordinator of the Asia Ageing Research Network of the Asian Development Research Forum, supported by Canada's IDRC. Prior to his Lingnan service, from 1990-1994, he was Director of the Institute of Population Studies at the University of Exeter, Reader in Health Studies from 1992, and Director of its World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Human Reproduction. From 1994 to 1997, he was Professor of Human Geography at the University of Nottingham, Head of Department, 1996-97, and Director of its WHO Collaborating Centre for Spatial Health Modelling.

He has extensive research experience in Hong Kong and many Asian, African and Caribbean countries. He has current research interests in Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and several other Asia-Pacific countries. He has held visiting appointments or external examinerships at universities including the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, the University of the West Indies and the University of Ulster. He is currently an honorary (adjunct) professor at the University of Nottingham, UK and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He was elected Fellow of the Academia Europaea in 1995 and a Corresponding Member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Overseas Sciences in 2008. He has frequently been an adviser and resource person for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and for other UN organizations such as WHO. He was a member (2006-7) of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC) review panel for the WHO Social Determinants of Adult Health and Mortality. He has recently been involved in research and/or training on occupational health, work-life balance and well-being for a number of organizations in Hong Kong including major corporations, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, the Hong Kong Airport Authority and the Hong Kong Police.

David Phillips has been a Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission on Health, Environment and Development, a Council Member of the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology and he has been a Non- Executive Director of a UK National Health Service family health services authority. He is a member of the Ethics Committee of the Hong Kong College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. From 1989 to 2006, he was an advisory editor to Social Science and Medicine. He is currently Asian regional advisor for Health and Place, an executive editor of the Asian Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics and board member of Ageing International and Economía, Sociedad y Territorio. He was previously an editorial board member of International Journal of Population Geography, Asian Geographer and The British Journal of Family Planning. He has published over one hundred and fifty papers and chapters and many reports and occasional papers. He has written or edited fifteen books and monographs, the most recent being Ageing in the Asia- Pacific Region (Routledge, editor 2000); Ageing and long-term care: national policies in the Asia-Pacific (ISEAS, Singapore and IDRC Ottawa, co-editor 2002) and Ageing and place (Routledge, co-editor 2005).