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Western University — Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Dr. Victor Khin Maung Han, MD, FRCPC, FRCP is a distinguished Canadian neonatologist, pediatrician, clinician-scientist, and academic leader. He is a Professor in the Departments of Paediatrics, Biochemistry, and Anatomy & Cell Biology at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, in London, Ontario, Canada. He is also Chair of the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Director of the Children’s Health Research Institute at the Lawson Health Research Institute.
Dr. Han has been a member of the Western University academic community since 1996, and his career has combined clinical neonatology with internationally recognized research into fetal growth, placental development, preterm birth, low birth weight, preeclampsia, growth factors, and developmental origins of health and disease.
Dr. Han received his medical degree from the Institute of Medicine, University of Rangoon (Rangoon University), Burma, in 1973. He subsequently completed postgraduate pediatric training in the United Kingdom, including training at the Universities of Southampton and Oxford.
He then undertook subspecialty training in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. From 1983 to 1987, he completed advanced research training in molecular biology and biochemistry, particularly in insulin-like growth factors, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was an MRC Research Fellow.
He subsequently returned to London, Ontario, where he developed his long-term career as a neonatologist, researcher, educator, and academic leader.
Dr. Han is a specialist in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, caring for newborns with complex medical conditions, including premature and critically ill infants.
One particularly notable moment in his clinical career occurred in 1982, when he was a young pediatrician training in neonatal medicine. He was the physician on call when a premature infant receiving mechanical ventilation developed respiratory failure. Dr. Han administered experimental surfactant developed by Dr. Fred Possmayer to the infant—the first administration of Possmayer's surfactant to a human infant. This work became an important milestone in the development of surfactant therapy for premature babies with respiratory distress.
Dr. Han is internationally recognized for research into fetal and placental growth and perinatal disease. His research uses molecular, genomic, and proteomic approaches to investigate how genetic and environmental factors influence fetal and placental development and how prenatal conditions can affect health later in life.
His research interests include:
His research program has attracted more than $12 million in grants from national and international funding agencies, according to Western University's faculty biography.
Dr. Han has held several major academic leadership positions throughout his career.
He has served as:
He has also played an important role in mentoring researchers and developing pediatric research programs. The Pediatric Chairs of Canada highlighted his ability to build collaborations between basic scientists, clinician-scientists, and clinicians.
Dr. Han has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications, according to the Pediatric Chairs of Canada award profile, with many appearing in high-impact scientific journals. His research has covered fetal and placental growth, neonatal disease, growth-factor biology, and the consequences of the prenatal environment on later health.
His work has also included research into neonatal cerebral blood flow, brain development, placental stem cells, insulin-like growth factors, and neonatal neurological complications.
Western University — Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
London, Ontario, Canada
Current roles include:
King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital – Health Services Directorate, Ministry of Defense
King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital – Health Services Directorate, Ministry of Defense