WONG Chun Man Patrick

Patrick C. M. Wong holds the Stanley Ho Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and is Professor of Linguistics and Professor of Otolaryngology (by courtesy) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He serves as the Founding Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at CUHK and previously held a tenured position at Northwestern University for a decade before joining CUHK in 2013.

Wong earned his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medical School in 2003. He also completed clinical training in speech-language pathology and is licensed to practice in the State of Illinois, holding full membership in both the Hong Kong Institute of Speech Therapists and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

His research centers on the neural basis of language and music, investigating individual differences in language learning through neural and neurogenetic markers, the neurophysiological links between language and music at the auditory brainstem level, and phonetic constancy and learning. This interdisciplinary work integrates cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, and clinical speech pathology to address both fundamental and translational questions.

Wong has secured continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over 15 years, with current projects supported by both US and Hong Kong agencies including the Research Grants Council (RGC) Collaborative Research Fund. As an effective research mentor and educator, he has received multiple teaching awards and served on review panels for the RGC, NIH, and US Department of Veteran Affairs.

His honors include:

• Three-time Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award at CUHK
• NIH Independent Scientist Award
• RGC Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship
• Guggenheim Fellowship (Humanities, 2021)

Wong directs the Brain and Mind Institute at CUHK, leading a research team that investigates cognitive and neural mechanisms of language and music processing, with findings featured in major media outlets including The New York Times and BBC.