Academician Datuk Professor Dr Lai-Meng Looi is Malaysia’s inaugural National Distinguished Professor, positioned at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur. She holds a concurrent appointment as senior consultant histopathologist at the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). Professor Looi studied medicine as a Malaysian Federal Scholar at the University of Singapore (1970-1975), where she was a medalist in Pathology and Social Medicine, and won the King Edward VII Hall awards for literary works, art forms and poetry.