Page 8 - CUHK MEDICAL ALUMNI Newsletter Issue 1 Vol 1 2015

FEATURES
07

CURIOSITY SPURS MEDICAL

STUDENT TO DIZZY HEIGHTS

“I thought David Ho was really cool because he did
something really useful…I felt I wanted to be like him.”
我希望成為像何大一那樣的科學家，為人類作出貢獻。

- Owen Ko (Med 5)

uriosity killed the cat”…
“Cso the saying goes. But
in the case of Owen Ko ( 高浩 ,
Med 5), curiosity has spurred
him to dizzy heights. Just
29 years old and Owen
has already had two
publications in the
authoritative scientific
journal, Nature. In
November last year, he
was a runner-up of the
prestigious Eppendorf Choosing The Chinese University of Hong Kong
& S c i e n c e P r i z e f o r was no brainer for Owen: “I had been taking a
Neurobiology - the first junior mathematics course at CUHK when I was in my
scientist in Hong Kong to be last year of secondary school. So it was natural
awarded the honour. that I would choose this university. I also really
like the fact the campus is occupying a whole
The fifth year medical student revealed that ever since mountain of its own and so, it’s like having our
he was young, he had always been curious about how own little community here.”
things worked. That propelled him to read books on
Science, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. After joining the University in 2005, he turned to
neuroscience. Owen says he was greatly influenced
But it was David Ho - the Taiwanese American by the Hodgkin and Huxley mathematical model
scientist renowned for his research on AIDS, who that describes how action potentials in neurons are
inspired Owen to take up medicine. “He’s my idol”, initiated and propagated.
Owen says. “I thought he was really cool because
he did something really useful and I felt I wanted Two years later, he took time off to spend a
to be like him. I was pretty determined then that I year in the lab under the tutelage of Professor
wanted to go into biomedical research.” Yung Wing-ho of the School of Biomedical
Sciences. A year later, he joined the University
But it has not always been smooth sailing for Owen. College London for a PhD in neuroscience
When he first came to Hong Kong from Fujian under Professor Thomas Mrsic-Flogel, a well-
province to join his parents and younger sister in known neuroscientist. Owen is back in Hong
1996, he was ten years old. He hardly spoke English. Kong, continuing with his MBChB, conducting
“My scores for Science and Maths were good but for research…and looking after his two pet hamsters.
English, I just got 16.” But a month later, he scored
54 marks and the following month, 94.