Professor Chow received his PhD in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He was a Belfer Fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine before joining HKUST. His own research focuses on molecular genetics of body patterning, neural development, and synthetic and evolutionary biology, and he runs a laboratory with diverse model organisms. He experimented extensively with various teaching pedagogies, including exploratory project courses, MOOCs and extensive flipped classes, and was awarded the Science School Teaching Award and the Michael G. Gale Medal for distinguished teaching at HKUST. He also heads the Center for Development of the Gifted and Talented, which nurtures gifted students.

Over the years, he has set up a number of successful undergraduate and graduate programs, e.g., Mol. Biomed. Sci., Bioengineering, Individualized Interdisciplinary Major, etc.  He served as Academic Director of the Common Core Program, the Director of the Interdisciplinary Programs Office overseeing the development of Environment, Sustainability, Public Policy, Technology Management, Risk Management and Business Intelligence, as well as currently as the Dean of Students.