Prof Jimmy So graduated from Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991. He received his surgical training in National University Hospital, Singapore. He was trained in Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Bariatric Surgery, Therapeutic Endoscopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery. He received fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA. He was also appointed as visiting consultant surgeon in Esophageal and Gastric Surgery at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He established a multidisciplinary program for Esophageal and Gastric cancers (Upper GI Tumour Group) in NUH in 2005. He also received fellowship training in gastric and esophageal cancer surgery in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. He also established the Centre for Obesity Management and Surgery (COMS)- a multidisciplinary service for morbid obesity and bariatric surgery. He is pioneer of peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM), minimally invasive surgery for gastric cancer, intraperitoneal chemotherapy and pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) in Singapore.

He has published more than 200 peer reviewed scientific papers (H Index of 46, Total citations 7895 according to Google Scholar in July 2021) and received over S$10 million research grants for his research work in these areas. He published his research in renowned medical journals such as Lancet, Nature, Nature Genetics, Gastroenterology, Gut, Cancer Discovery, Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery and JAMA Surgery. He received the Peritoneal Prize by International Society for the Study of Peritoneum and Pleura (ISSPP) in 2020 which recognized the top researcher in the world in the field of peritoneal carcinomatosis. He delivered the Yaya Cohen Memorial Lecture by College of Surgeons, Singapore in 2018. He also received a Gold Award at the annual scientific meeting of the National Healthcare Group. He was invited regularly to speak at International Gastric Cancer Congress, Annual Scientific Meetings of Japanese Gastric Cancer Association and Korean International Gastric Cancer Week. He has also presented his works at American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), International Society for Diseases of Esophagus (ISDE) and World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery. He is founding president of the Asia-Pacific Gastro-esophageal Cancer Congress in 2006. Prof So is the Editor for Gastric Cancer, an official journal of International Gastric Cancer Association and he is also member of editorial board of medical journals such as Journal of Gastric Cancer, Cancers and Translational Medicine.