Stephen Wong is the John S. Dunn, Sr. Presidential Distinguished Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering, the Founding Chair of Systems Medicine and Bioengineering Department, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for BRAIN, and Translational Biophotonics Laboratory at Houston Methodist Research Institute; Associate Director of Shared Resources, Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center; Chief Research Information Officer, Houston Methodist Hospital; Professor of Radiology, Neurosciences, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cornell University as well as adjunct professors at Rice University, Texas A&M University, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas Health Science Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of Houston. He is the executive sponsor of Asian Heritage Employee Resource Group and a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Council at Houston Methodist.
Dr. Wong is a specialist in AI, drug discovery, imaging, informatics, systems biology, and digital health. His career highlights including: led teams that automated fabrication and production of the world’s first VLSI MB computer memory chips (Bell Labs) and III/IV optoelectronic chip (HP), designed and developed the first hospital-wide picture archiving and communication system (PACS) in US (UCSF), directed integrated clinical product development at Philips Healthcare, including implementation of the largest radiology information systems in Europe (Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, France) and development of an object-oriented (CORBA) electronic medical record system, and developed one of the first and largest online brokerage trading platforms (schwab.com, Charles Schwab). As a Professor at Harvard Univesity, Dr. Wong founded HCNR Center for Bioinformatics at Harvard Medical School where he pioneered using machine learning and high content/throughput screening for drug discovery, and the Functional and Molecular Imaging Center, including the creation of the first cyclotron facilities and MRI/PET/CT imaging core facilities at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
His laboratory at Houston Methodist investigates molecular mechanisms of cancer, neurological disorders and metabolic diseases and translates discoveries into diagnostic, therapeutic, and prevention strategies. His research has been funded by NIH for three decades. At Houston Methodist, he created the Center for Modeling Cancer Development and the Division of Shared Resources at Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for BRAIN, Advanced Cellular and Tissue Microscopy Core, Translational Biophotonics Lab, and Systems Medicine and Bioengineering Department at Houston Methodist Academic/Research Institute. He served as the Vice Chair of Radiology Department and Chief of Medical Physics, helped implement the cyclotron and medical imaging core facilities. As the Chief Research Information Officer, he directed the development of clinical data warehouse.
His research at Houston Methodist led to several clinical trials for breast cancer and medulloblastoma drug repositioning, image-guided intervention for lung cancer, digital therapeutics for cancer survivors, and AI in breast cancer and incidental lung nodule risk assessment and acute ischemic stroke triage and detection. He trained over 60 PhD and MD/PhD students and 100 postdoctoral fellows. He is the editor-in-chief for Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics and served on several scientific and engineering journal editorial boards. He published over 500 peer-reviewed papers and 5 books and granted 9 US patents.
Dr. Wong is a Fellow of IEEE, AIMBE, AMIA, and AAIA, a licensed professional engineer (PE), and a distinguished lecturer of IEEE. He received his B.Eng (hons) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Western Australia, M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science (AI) from Lehigh University, and senior executive education from Stanford University, MIT, and Columbia University. He serves on advisory boards of several health tech companies and disease foundations. He lived and worked in Hong Kong, Manila, Perth, Canberra, Singapore, Orlando, Tokyo, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Boston, and now Houston for the past sixteen years. He dedicates the second half of his life in solving disease problems.