Wei-jei Lee MD, PhD

Professor Wei-Jei Lee is a well-known pioneer and researcher in bariatric metabolic surgery (BMS) and is known as the father of Asian BMS. He pioneered the first laparoscopic bariatric surgery in Asia in 1998, and for the past few decades, he has been a huge influence in the careers of many other Asian BMS surgeons.

Professor Lee graduated from the Medical College of National Taiwan University in 1980. He completed his surgical residency training in the National Taiwan University Hospital and became a boarded surgeon in 1986. He finished his Ph.D. program researching gastric cancer at the Institute of Clinical Medical Research of the National Taiwan University, Medical College in 1994. He became a professor of surgery at the National Taiwan University in 2005.

It has been four decades since Professor Lee first became a physician. During his first decade as a physician, he finished his training in upper gastrointestinal surgery (UGI) and his Ph.D. program. During the next decade, he focused on gastric cancer surgery and research. He finished a 2-year program in surgical oncology cohosted by the Taiwan Central Research Institute and Harvard University which transformed him into a scientific researcher. He started performing laparoscopic UGI surgery during this period. During the following two decades, his major interest shifted to bariatric surgery.

At present, Professor Lee spends one-third of his time in China setting up a new BMS center in Su Zhou and hopes to contribute his knowledge and experience to spread BMS in other regions of China. Professor Lee currently spends most of his time on the training and education of young surgeons and hopes to complete his ambitious research project known as the Taiwan Diabesity Study.