Source: Human Resources Department
Written by: Human Resources Department
Photo by: Cai Shanshan
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On April 8, 2017, the appointment ceremony of Professor Shu Yuelong as Dean of School of Public Health (Shenzhen) of Sun Yat-sen University was held on Guangzhou South Campus. President Luo Jun presented the letter of appointment to Professor Shu Yuelong. Assistant Presidents Yang Qinghua and Luo Teng attended the appointment ceremony.

Professor Shu Yuelong thanked the University for the support and introduced the working plan of the new school, saying that he would promote disciplinary development to build public health into a world-class discipline and make his contributions to building SYSU into a world-class university.

President Luo Jun welcomed Professor Shu Yuelong to join SYSU, and introduced the significance of establishing the School of Public Health (Shenzhen). He said that the University will provide full support to the School, and he hoped that the School will formulate development plan and goal, being oriented toward academic frontiers, oriented toward national major strategic needs, and oriented toward national and regional economic and social development, promoting the construction of big research teams, big platforms and big projects, and promoting disciplinary construction, scientific research and talent introduction.

Professor Shu Yuelong was born in March 1970. He is the Dean of School of Public Health (Shenzhen), Sun Yat-sen University. He served as the deputy director of National Institute for Viral Disease Prevention and Control, the director of Chinese National Influenza Center, China CDC, and director of World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza. Professor Shu has been selected as the national candidate of Millions of Talent Projects, the leading young scientific and technological innovation talent by Ministry of Science and Technology, and one of the first batch of the leading scientific and technological innovation talents of National 10000 Talents Projects. He was also awarded the National Outstanding Young Scientist Fund, and selected as 2014 Top 10 “scientific and technological innovators”, jointly organized by CCTV, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other 5 ministries.

Professor Shu Yuelong has long focused on influenza etiological and epidemiological researches. He has published more than 300 academic papers, among which he was the corresponding (co-corresponding) author of more than 70 papers published on academic journals, such as Science, Nature, NEJM and The Lancet. 3 of his papers have been included in the 100 Most Influential Chinese Academic Papers, and his single most cited paper has been cited over 900 times. His research result has been awarded as one of China’s top 10 major scientific progresses in 2013. He has led more than 20 international and domestic research projects and won the first prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress Awards (ranked #10), second prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress Awards (ranked #3), first prize of Ministry of Health Scientific and Technological Progress Awards (ranked #3), first prize of Beijing Science and Technology Awards (ranked #2), second prize of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association Science and Technology Awards (ranked #1), and first prize of Chinese Medical Association Science and Technology Awards (ranked #1). He is also twice the winner of first prize of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association Science and Technology Awards (ranked #1). He was awarded “Outstanding Individual of National Health Emergency”, “Outstanding Individual of National Medicine and Health System”, major contributor to public health and prevention medicine progress, and the 11th Chinese Youth Science and Technology Award.

Professor Shu Yuelong has been engaged in the prevention and control of influenza and emerging infectious diseases. His major achievements and contributions include: (1) the establishment of the largest influenza surveillance network in the world, which has become the pillar of China and global influenza prevention and control and the rapid early detection, prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases; (2) leading the Chinese National Influenza Center to become the 5th global influenza reference and collaborative center, which is the first among developing countries, and gained China a leading role in the global influenza prevention and control field in global community; (3) firstly developed novel Influenza H1N1 virus diagnostic reagent, which provided essential technical support for the 2009 pandemic influenza prevention and control for China and the world; (4) firstly discovered a novel avian H7N9 influenza virus caused severe human infection in China that has not been detected in humans and animals previously, with great global public health concern. (5) identified the origin and evolution mechanism of novel avian influenza virus H7N9, and illustrated the molecular mechanism of causing human infection and death; (6) identified the source of human infection with avian influenza virus H5N1, which provided scientific evidences for the development of prevention and control strategies.