Speakers Bios & Abstracts
Keynote Speakers
Deputy director, Vienna Institute of Demography
Editor-in-Chief, Vienna Yearbook of Population Research
Tomas Sobotka
Tomas Sobotka leads the research group on Fertility and Population Change and serves as deputy director of the Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Vienna Yearbook of Population Research and co-director of the Human Fertility Database. Sobotka received PhD from demography at the University of Groningen (NL) and lectures at the Charles University in Prague (Czechia) and at the University of Vienna.
His research focuses on global low fertility and family changes, family policies, fertility data and measurement, childlessness, migration, population and family change in Europe, and assisted reproduction. Tomas Sobotka has helped launching and expanding several data repositories, including the Human Fertility Database (HFD, www.humanfertility.org ). He is keen on expanding demographic knowledge beyond the boundaries of the discipline. To that aim, he has been collaborating with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other organisations, and coordinating the European Demographic Data Sheet (http://www.populationeurope.org ).
In 2017 he was awarded Allianz European Demographer Award and in 2022 Dirk J. van de Kaa Award for Social Demography by the European Association for Population Studies.
Consultant, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, NUH
Deputy Director, Adjunct Assistant Professor, NUS Bia-Echo Asia Centre for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (ACRLE)
Huang Zhongwei
Dr. Huang Zhongwei is a clinician-scientist and MOH-accredited specialist in Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) at the National University Hospital, Singapore. He earned his medical degree from the National University of Singapore and PhD from the University of Oxford, focusing on human oocyte biology and reproductive ageing. His research aims to promote reproductive longevity and improve women’s health-span, integrating demographic, biological, and clinical data to inform translational fertility research. Dr. Huang is also actively involved in medical education and the holistic care of couples with fertility and reproductive health issues.
Special Panel Speakers
Confronting Asia’s Fertility Challenges: Policy Paths for the Future
Professor of Sociology and Demography at the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University
EUN Ki-Soo
Ki-Soo Eun is a Professor of Sociology and Demography at the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include: low fertility and aging, family history, family values, transnational migration, care and care work, time use study and quantitative method. Prof. Eun has led the Comparative Asian Family Survey (CAFS) project together with Prof. Emiko Ochiai of Kyoto University in Japan, which conducted family surveys in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Qatar and Turkey. Since 2017, he has been engaged in an international project on the care economy (CWE-GAM project), representing the Korean team. He is in charge of the KOICA Gender and Development Program at GSIS as the Program Manager. Prof. Eun is also an expert on time use research with publications and articles on work-life balance, time poverty, study time, and sleep. He leads comparative studies on time use across countries. Prof. Eun currently serves as Vice President of the International Association for Time Use Research and is also the founder and current President of the Korean Association for Time Studies. He is President of the Population Association of Korea and the Korean Social History Association, as well as Vice President of the Korean Family Studies Association. He also serves as Vice Director at the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies. Prof. Eun is a member of the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy (PCASPP) in Korea.
Henry Wendt III '55 Professor of East Asian Studies
Professor of Sociology
Director, Princeton-University of Tokyo Strategic Partnership
James RAYMO
James Raymo is Professor of Sociology and the Henry Wendt III Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. He is a social demographer whose research focuses on documenting and understanding the causes and potential consequences of demographic changes associated with population aging in Japan. His published research includes analyses of marriage timing, divorce, recession and fertility, marriage and women’s health, single mothers’ well-being, living alone, family change and social inequality, employment and health at older ages, and regional differences in health at older ages. His research has been published in leading U.S. journals such as American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, and Journal of Marriage and Family as well as in Japanese journals. Raymo serves on the board of directors of the Population Association of America and is an associate editor of Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences and Demography. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2000.
Amelia TANG
Deputy Secretary, Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office
Ms Amelia Tang is the Deputy Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office - Strategy Group (PMO-SG). PMO-SG drives Whole-of-Government strategic planning by (i) identifying key priorities and emerging issues over the medium to long-term, (ii) developing a national policy agenda, and (iii) aligning the work of other public agencies to the national agenda through various planning processes and structures. It also partners other public agencies to formulate, coordinate and review policies to address cross-cutting issues such as population and climate change. Before assuming the role of Deputy Secretary, Amelia was the Director of Strategic Planning, and of the National Population and Talent Division within PMO-SG.
Prior to joining PMO-SG, she held appointments in various ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, as well as the Ministry of Education. Her experience cuts across a range of domain areas including trade policy and negotiations, retirement adequacy and pensions, arts and heritage policy, as well as manpower planning and HR strategy.
Chair Professor (Population Health)
Department of Social Work and Social Administration
The University of Hong Kong
Paul YIP
Professor Yip is the Chair Professor (Population Health) at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, and the Director of the University’s HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention. He is the principal investigator of the following: OPENUP – a 24 hour online emotional support project, a community-based suicide prevention project for the Wong Tai Sin District, poverty alleviation programs, and the Quality Thematic Network on developing mental wellness for schools in Hong Kong etc. He is interested in identifying and developing good practices for promoting wellbeing in the community. His monograph is on ‘Understanding Poverty in Hong Kong’, which has won the 11th Hong Kong Book Prize held. He is serving as the Chair of the Research Committee of the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (2012-present), and was the interim chair of the ESEAOR of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (2017-2018), the Secretary General of Asian Population Association (2014-2017), the chairman of the committee of preventing students’ suicide (2016), a member of the Steering Committee on Population Policy (2012-2013), a vice-president of the International Association of Suicide Prevention (2009-2013), and an associate member of the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong SAR Government (2014-2016). He has received various awards and recognitions, including the Rehabilitation International Centennial Award for significant contribution in 2023; Hong Kong Spirit Award by the South China Morning Post and Sino Group in 2021, the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship in 2020, Australia-China Alumni Award (Research) in 2019, a Medal of Honor from the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2017, the Stengel Research award in 2012, an outstanding supervisor and researcher of the University of Hong Kong in 2009, 2011 and 2017 respectively, and a distinguished alumni of La Trobe University in 2008. He has published more than 700 research papers relating to population health and suicide prevention. His Chinese books include “Understanding Poverty in Hong Kong (Third Edition)”, “Be with You: Learning from Suicide Notes”, and “Understanding Poverty in Hong Kong (Revised Edition)”.
Strategies to Tackle the Low Fertility Rates - Biomedical Solutions and Beyond
Fertility Specialist, Metro IVF
Pravin PERABA
Dr Pravin Peraba obtained his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the National University of Malaysia (UKM). He is a passionate advocate for fertility in Malaysia that has seen him named as President of the Malaysian Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (MSART) in the upcoming term. He is also a key member of the government’s ACCRH body which has been tasked with combating the declining total fertility rate in Malaysia. Aside from lecturing and presenting, his main goals are to educate the next generation of reproductive medicine physicians.
Professor at Department of Biomedical Science, College of Life Sciences, CHA University
Korea Executive Director at CHA University Fertility Center
Kyung-Ah Jean LEE
Jean Kyung-Ah Lee received her Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992, M.S. from Seoul National University and B.A. in Biology from Yonsei University in 1983. Upon finishing her doctoral training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she joined the CHA Fertility Centre of the CHA Biomedical Group in Seoul, Korea.
At CHA University, she was appointed as the Head of the Department of Biomedical Science, a position she served from 2011 to 2013, and worked as the Dean of the College of Life Science from 2012 to 2013. She also served as the Vice President of the Korean Society for Developmental Biology from 2009 to 2011 and the Vice President of the Korean Society for Reproductive Medicine from 2013 to 2014. She has been serving as an associate editor of the Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine (CERM), the official journal of the Pacific Society for Reproductive Medicine (PSRM), since 2011 and the General Secretary of PSRM since 2014. From August 2018, she served as an Executive Director of the CHA Reproductive Medicine Division.
She has dedicated her research to reproductive medicine for the last 30 years with a special focus on ovarian physiology and has published over 150 peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and conference proceedings. She received ~30 Prize Awards conferred by major international and national academic societies. Her current research projects are focused on studying the molecular regulation of oocyte’s cytoplasmic maturation especially aged oocytes and embryo development.
Rebecca DEANS
Gynaecologist & Fertility Specialist, Royal Hospital for Women
Associate Professor & Lecturer, UNSW School of Women's & Children's Health
Dr Rebecca Deans is a specialist gynaecologist with expertise in paediatric and adolescent gynaecology, alongside fertility medicine. She practises across multiple leading institutions including the Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Prince of Wales Private Hospital, and Life Fertility at Sydney’s St Luke’s Hospital. She is also an internationally recognised researcher in the surgical management of benign gynaecology and endometriosis and has a special interest in paediatric and adolescent gynaecology.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr Deans serves as a lecturer at the University of New South Wales School of Women's & Children's Health, where she contributes to medical education and advances the field through ongoing research initiatives. Among Dr Deans’ many accomplishments are over 60 peer reviewed publications in leading national and international publications, 5 book chapters and over 20 research papers. She has also been invited to present 14 times at national and international meetings. Dr Deans has worked with international leaders to establish protocols and is the lead researcher of a collaborative uterine transplant project. In January 2023, Dr Deans and her team performed the first Australian uterine transplant at the Royal Hospital for Women.