The Dr Wu Lien-Teh Public Health Award was established with sponsorship by Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society, Penang and collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. This award is intended to give recognition to the best candidate for the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) programme in Universiti Malaya effective from the 2020/2021 academic session for 5 years.

Award Requirements

The Wu Lien-Teh Award shall be awarded annually to one student with the best achievement in the Program based on four domains; (1) Leadership, (2) Community engagement, (3) Academic Standing and (4) Professionalism;
The candidate obtains the highest marks and not less than 65% of the evaluation marks for the entire prescribed domain;
Candidates graduate in a period not exceeding eight (8) semester from the date of commencement of candidate registration;
The prize will be in the form of cash with a value of RM1,000.00, medal and certificate.
The award shall be made by the Senate on the recommendation of selection committee (Jawatankuasa Pemilih).
No award shall be made in any academic year if there is no candidate fulfill the criteria

Domains of Evaluation

The shortlisted graduates will be invited to participate in the awards. The candidate must provide proof of their achievement in the following four domains. Each of the domains carries the same wattages.

Leadership – 25%
Community engagement – 25%
Academic Standing – 25%
Professionalism – 25%

Evaluation of Candidates

The evaluation of candidates will go need to go through 4 levels of evaluation.

Level 1 – Candidates

Receive shortlisted candidates from the Dean’s office
Candidates are required to complete the questionnaire provided by the department
Candidates return the questionnaire to the department

Level 2 – Assessors (Department)

Assessment by two independent academics appointed by the Head of Department on the 4 domains of evaluation.
The assessor should not have supervised the candidate for the Master of Public Health or the Doctor of Public Health programme.
Candidates who fulfilled the criteria will be submitted to the Faculty for the next level of evaluation

Level 3 – Selection Committee (Jawatankuasa Pemilih)(Faculty)

The members of the selection will consist of

Dean, Faculty of Medicine
Deputy Dean (Postgraduate), Faculty of Medicine
Head of Department or Program Coordinator, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Two academics from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
One Doctor of Public Health Alumni

Quorum will be at least three members including the Dean

The selection committee will recommend one candidate to the Senate for approval and endorsement.

Level 4 – Senate

The name of the candidate recommended by the Faculty of Medicine’s Selection committee will be presented to the Universiti Malaya Senate for approval and endorsement.

Winners of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Public Health Award

2021 Award Winner – Dr Wan Kim Sui

Dr Wan Kim Sui is the first recipient of this award which was presented to him by the Honorary Advisor of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Haji Mohamed Ismail Bin Merican in a ceremony on 21 January 2022.

He graduated with a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Faculty of Medicine, the Universiti Malaya in 2018 and pursued his doctorate studies with our faculty from 2019 to 2021. He has been an exceptional DrPH candidate with his knowledge, both in breadth and depth, in the field of Public Health especially in subjects related to Diabetes Mellitus Epidemiology and Biostatistics is outstanding. He was supervised by Professor Dr Noran Naqiah Hairi and Professor Dr Moy Foong Ming.

He has been very proactive in the academic arena; he is an excellent researcher. He has presented his research work at conferences and published several articles in refereed, high-impact journals. He is passionate and a strong advocate for improving type 2 diabetes patients’ health. He has written more than 30 media pieces in many languages – English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin. Besides producing these media pieces, he has developed two infographics (both in English and Bahasa Melayu) which were shared by a social media influencer and the official social media page (Facebook) of the Seremban Health District Office.

Dr Wan Kim Sui is a natural leader. With a warm and pleasant personality, he enjoys working in a team. His excellent leadership qualities were evident when working in the UMMC Covid-19 Surveillance Room in 2020, he coordinated and published an article describing the Implementation of a COVID-19 surveillance programme for healthcare workers in a teaching hospital.

2023 Award Winner – Dr Wong Min Fui@Esther Wong

On March 3 2023, President and representatives from the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society attended the award ceremony for the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Award for the Best Student in Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), Universiti Malaya, organised by the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. There were seven highly qualified finalists shortlisted for this award. Dr Wong Min Fui@Esther Wong from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, a mother of two, was the winner of this award’s second year in running.

Dr Wong completed her Master of Public Health (MPH) and Doctor of Public Health in four years in time during the COVID-19 pandemic. She developed a digital psychosocial intervention for low-income urban dwellers for her project. Her passion for working with the poor urban community and mental health stemmed from her 12 years of working experience at the primary care and district health office in Sabah and Kuala Lumpur. She owed her success to her family. Growing up in a B40 family is never a barrier to becoming a successful person. In fact, she becomes more resilient and steadfast. She felt it is not enough to have a good policy in public health, the implementers must believe it works and build trust in order to convince people to actually follow it.