Background
Chan is the second daughter of noted Singaporean swimming coach Doctor Chan Ah Kow.
Chan is the second daughter of noted Singaporean swimming coach Doctor Chan Ah Kow.
She left Singapore in 1962 with a scholarship to Smith College, from which she graduated in 1965. She then went on to the Tufts University School of Medicine for a Doctor of Philosophy, which she completed in 1969.
As a young woman, Chan excelled at school in science, and herself represented Singapore in international swimming competitions as well. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1975 as the first woman to receive an Doctor of Medicine summa cum laude. She would go on to found the journal Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.
She later moved to Switzerland, where she served as part of the faculty of University of Zurich Medical School from 1989.
She was awarded the Humboldt Prize in Medical Research by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She renounced her United States citizenship in 2012.