Stephen T. Wong, PhD

Dr. Wong holds the John S. Dunn Presidential Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Engineering and is a Professor of Radiology and Medicine with Tenure and Chief of Medical Physics at Houston Methodist. He also serves as a Professor of Radiology, Neurosciences, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, along with professorships at Texas A&M University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, the University of Texas Health Houston, and the University of Houston. His laboratory integrates engineering with biology and medicine to elucidate disease origins and mechanisms, leading to the discovery of new drugs and the development of medical devices aimed at improving diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, particularly for cancer and neurological disorders. 

Steve is renowned for his groundbreaking contributions across multiple disciplines, including medical imaging, life sciences, finance, and technology. At Bell Labs, he contributed to the development of world’s first VLSI MB memory chips. At Hewlett-Packard, he played a key role in the automation of optoelectronics semiconductor production. While at UCSF, he was instrumental in developing the world’s first hospital-wide Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), revolutionizing radiology practice. During the dotcom era, Wong led the development of the world’s largest web trading site at Charles Schwab. At Philips Healthcare, he spearheaded the creation of the first object-oriented electronic medical record and the largest Radiology Information System in Europe, as well as other clinical imaging products. At Harvard Medical School, he established the Bioinformatics Center for neurodegeneration research and pioneered machine learning and systems biology for drug discovery. He also founded the Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, creating their first cyclotron and translational imaging facilities.

At Houston Methodist, Wong founded several key centers and labs, including the Division of Shared Resources at Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center, the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for BRAIN, the Advanced Cellular and Tissue Microscopy Core, the Translational Biophotonics Lab, the Center for Modeling Cancer Development, the AI in Innovative Medicine lab, and Systems Medicine and Bioengineering Department. His research has been consistently funded by NIH for three decades. He has published over 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers and five books. He has trained and mentored over 170 Ph.D., MD/Ph.D., and postdocs, with four now holding endowed chairs or distinguished professor positions.

Dr. Wong’s scientific contributions are recognized by his fellowship in several esteemed organizations, including IEEE, AIMBE, IAMBE, ACMI, AMIA, Optica, and AAIA. Additionally, he is a registered professional engineer (PE) and received senior executive education from Stanford Graduate School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Columbia Business School. After a career in finance during the dotcom era, Wong returned to academic medicine, dedicating his efforts to solving complex disease and healthcare challenges.