Academy
Ting-Wa Wong, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and the College
The University of Chicago
Ting-Wa Wong, MD, PhD
Dr. Ting-Wa Wong was born in Hong Kong. She attended the University of California at Berkeley and received her B.A. degree with honors, having been elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Scholastic Honor Society in her junior year. She then attended the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and obtained her MD degree with honors, simultaneously receiving the Borden Undergraduate Research Award in Medicine. After completing her pathology residency, Dr. Wong became a faculty member in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago. She then took a four-year leave of absence to engage in graduate studies in organic chemistry, receiving her PhD degree from the University of Chicago as well.
Through the years, Dr. Wong has been extensively involved in the teaching of Medical students in their pre-clinical years. She was course coordinator of General and Cellular Pathology for nearly a decade, and continues to participate as a faculty member in the course. But her major love has been the teaching of Clinicopathophysiology (CPP), which she began in 1990. In this all-consuming course for the sophomores, she is known for her dedication to the students, and for delivering highly organized and lucid lectures as well as for composing some of the most-prized handouts. She is also known for her comprehensive and enlightening reviews on various topics. Aside from teaching in CPP, Dr. Wong also initiated and directed the accelerated summer histology course for entering MSTP students (Introduction to Tissue Biology) for nearly a decade. This course has been instrumental in shortening the time during which MSTP students must spend in the classroom and allowing them to begin their research toward the PhD degree much earlier.
For her teaching of the Medical students, Dr. Wong has received numerous awards. Among them are the following: Election to the AOA Honor Medical Society in 1988 by the graduating seniors. Basic Science Teaching Award (chosen by sophomores): 1980, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997. Humanism and Excellence in Pre-Clinical Teaching Award, 1999. Distinguished Basic Science Teaching Award (conferred by graduating seniors): 1992, 2002, 2004, and 2005. She has also received the Favorite Faculty Award from graduating seniors 20 times (in 1982 and every year from 1987 through 2005).
In addition to teaching Medical students, Dr. Wong has also conducted a Core Biology Course for non-biology majors in the College, entitled "The Origins of Cancer". In the past eight years, a number of non-biology students from this course have switched their majors from social sciences or the humanities to premedical studies and have subsequently been accepted to Medical schools, including the Pritzker School of Medicine. They all credit her teaching for having re-directed their life-long career paths. On the basis of student nominations for her teaching in this college course, she has been elected to Who's Who among America's Teachers for the last three years; less than 2% of the nation's teachers are elected more than once.
In 2006, in recognition of her contributions to the education of Medical students, Dr. Wong was named one of six inaugural members of the University of Chicago Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators.
