Dr. Nancy Leung is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong. With diverse research training in epidemiology, virology, and immunology, her research applies epidemiologic principles to understand virus-host interactions of respiratory viruses and their impact on public health policies. She is an early-career Principal Investigator for several community-based studies with over 6,000 participants in Hong Kong and mainland China, studying individual and population immunity, vaccine response, transmission, and disease burden related to influenza, COVID-19, and other respiratory viruses, while also exploring causal inference analysis.
Dr. Leung’s work has provided early evidence on aerosol transmission and facemask effectiveness in reducing coronavirus spread, and the comparative efficacy of inactivated and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. She has received two best abstract awards, was a Takemi Fellow in International Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and served as Co-Chair/Member in two WHO expert advisory groups on SARS-CoV-2 indoor airborne risk assessment (ARIA) and standardizing terminology for pathogen transmission through the air (TTAT). She currently serves as an Editor for the International Journal of Epidemiology.
As an ISRV Council member, Dr. Leung is passionate about shaping research agendas and policy recommendations for respiratory virus infections with better integration of epidemiologic research; and advocates for international collaboration especially supporting scientists and public health practitioners from low- and middle-income countries.