Concurrent with her role as Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) (Interim), Professor Stephanie Ma is also Jimmy and Emily Tang Professor in Molecular Genetics in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed). She is also a Principal Investigator in the State Key Laboratory of Liver Research. Previously, she served as the Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation) at HKU, the Assistant Dean (Innovation and Technology Transfer) at HKUMed and the Associate Director of the School of Biomedical Sciences at HKUMed.

Professor Ma holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree from the University of British Columbia and a Ph.D. degree from HKU. She has over 20 years of experience in scientific research, teaching and administration in academia in both Canada and Hong Kong, with interest in cancer and biomedical sciences. Specifically, her research focuses on elucidating how a de-differentiated, stemness-like cellular state in cancer contributes to therapeutic resistance and disease recurrence. She received numerous awards over the years, including the 2008 Young Scientist Award in Life Sciences from the Hong Kong Institution of Science, the 2014 Croucher Innovation Award, the 2014 Scientific Research Outstanding Achievement Award (Second-class Award in Science and Technology Section) from the Higher Education Institution of China, the 2017 University of British Columbia Alumni Builder Award (Canada), the 2021 Research Grants Council (RGC) Research Fellow Scheme as well as the 2023 Croucher Senior Research Fellowship.

In her field, she has been ranked top 1% Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate (2010-2018), ranked among the top 2% of scientists worldwide by Stanford (2022-2025), and listed as a "Top Scientist" (nationally ranked 65 in molecular biology) by Research.com (2025).

Professor Ma is also a Founding Member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences (YASHK), where she currently serves as Vice-President and Chair of their Policy Advisory Committee. Professor Ma is active in community services and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP), the Advisory Board at the Hong Kong Life Sciences Society (HKLSS), a member of the RGC Biology and Medicine Panel, the Science Sub-committee under the Museum Advisory Committee, and the Expert Panel on the Designation of Designated Local Research Institutions.