Dr. Youfa Wang is the Founding Dean of Global Health Institute, Xian Jiaotong University and the John and Janice Fisher Endowed Chair, Associate Director of the Fisher Institute, and Professor of Nutrition and Health Science in College of Health, Ball State University. Previously, he was Assistant Professor at University of Illinois; Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, the Founding Director of the Global Center on Childhood Obesity at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and School of Medicine; and Professor of Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Pediatrics, Department Chair, and Program Director at State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dr. Wang is recently chosen as the recipient of the 2016 CHPAMS Inspiration Award, based on his impressive research achievements, significant scientific contributions and leadership 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 and contributions in multiple international and domestic organizations including the WHO, American Society for Nutrition, and top universities such as Johns Hopkins University. He is Chair of The Obesity Society (TOS) Pediatric Obesity Section (in North America) and Vice Chair of the Chinese Prevention Medicine Association Global Health Section.

As an internationally-known expert, Dr. Wang has over 220 publications, including over 170 peer reviewed papers, and many are published in top journals such as Lancet, Circulation, JAMA and Obesity Review. His work is widely cited, and some papers for well more than 1000 times. Over the past 15 years, as the principle investigator (PI) he has secured about $23 million in NIH research grants including multiple R01 grants and a >$16 million NIH U54 center grant (“Systems-Oriented Pediatric Obesity Research and Training (SPORT) Center of Excellence”).  He has fostered and established transdisciplinary- and international collaborations on large research projects, which demonstrated his strong research background and ability to collaborate well with a large number of scientists worldwide. His key research interests include epidemiology, nutrition, childhood obesity etiology and prevention, noncommunicable chronic diseases global health, big data, systems models, and mHealth.