First CHPAMS Inspiration Award goes to Dr. Youfa Wang

It is with our greatest honor to announce the winner of CHPAMS’s first Inspiration Award, Dr. Youfa Wang, the founding Dean of the Xi’an Jiaotong University Global Health Institute, Associate Director of the Fisher Institute, John and Janice Fisher Endowed Chair in Wellness, and Professor of Nutrition and Health Science, Ball State University, and previously, Professor of Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Pediatrics in University at Buffalo, State University of New York and the Director of the Global Center on Childhood Obesity at Johns Hopkins University.  

CHPAMS established the Inspiration Award in August 2016 to recognize members’ extraordinary determination to challenge the “status quo”, overcome significant barriers and achieve accomplishments in scientific research, community service, or innovative activities that are above and beyond the expectation. The Inspiration Award was exclusively funded through member donations. In September 2016, CHPAMS started the nomination process and formed a five-member Award Committee that was made up of CHPAMS President Dr. Zhuo (Adam) Chen and four distinguished researchers as below.

·       Teh-Wei Hu, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

·       Shanlian Hu, MD, MSc, Professor of Health Economics, Director of Training Center for Health Management and Director of Pharmacoeconomics Research and Evaluation Center at School of Public Health, Fudan University

·       Winnie Yip, PhD, Professor of the Practice of International Health Policy and Economics, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health), and

·       Hai Yu, MD, PhD, Professor, Director of International Education Program and Director of Center of Distance Education, Zhejiang University School of Medicine.  

We received four highly quality nominations including three individual nominees and one team nomination. All the individuals and team members being nominated have exemplified perseverance, dedication, and leadership in their impressive achievements and accomplishments.  After independent assessment and a round of group discussion, the Award Committee selected Dr. Youfa Wang as the winner of the 2016 Inspiration Award.

Dr. Wang, a founding member of CHPAMS, was chosen for his impressive research achievements, significant scientific contributions in a number of areas on a global scale, many years’ dedication to promoting global health, strong support for young scholars’ career development, and outstanding leadership in multiple international and domestic organizations including the WHO and American Society for Nutrition, and, top universities such as Johns Hopkins University.  As an internationally-known expert, he has published over 210 papers in top journals such as Lancet, Circulation, and JAMA Internal Medicine, many of which are widely cited for well more than 2000 times. During his career, he has secured about $23 million NIH research grants including multiple R01 grants and a >$16 million U54 center grant (Systems-Oriented Pediatric Obesity Research and Training (SPORT) Center of Excellence (U54).  In total, he has secured about $46 million research grants as PI or Co-I.  He has fostered and established transdisciplinary- and international collaborations on large research projects, which demonstrated his high strong research background and ability to collaborate well with a large number of scientists worldwide. In addition, his constant support and contribution as a key founding member and a member of the Founding Board of Directors of CHPAMS make him a well-deserved winner for this award. 

Congratulations to Dr. Youfa Wang!