Xifeng Wu, M.D., Ph.D., Dean and Professor of School of Public Health; Vice President of The Second Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine; Executive Dean of D. H. Chen School of Universal Health of Zhejiang University; Director of National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine; Director of Center for Big Data Research in Medical Insurance & Health Policy at Zhejiang University; China National Top Talent Expert; Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor; and Zhejiang Province “Kunpeng” Top Talent Expert. Dr. Wu’s research spans the fields of genetics, healthcare big data, epidemiology, and precision medicine.
Dr. Wu earned her M.D., from Fudan University in 1984, M.S. from Zhejiang University in 1987, and Ph.D. from The University of Texas School of Public Health in 1994. Before joining Zhejiang University, she served at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center that ranked the first in the American Cancer Hospitals as Tenured Professor, and as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health for over 28 years. She was named as endowed Ashbel Smith Professorship in 2004 and endowed Betty B. Marcus Chair in Cancer Prevention in 2008. She had served as Leader for the Premalignant Genome Atlas program, Director for the Center for Translational and Public Health Genomics, Director of the Patient History Database, Chair for the Department of Epidemiology, and Leader of the Department of Epidemiology Program.
Dr. Wu has received many awards, including MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Faculty Scholar Award, the Margaret and James A. Elkins Jr. Faculty Achievement Award in Cancer Prevention, the Julie and Ben Rogers Award for Excellence in Research, senior fellow of MD Anderson Research Trust, the Robert Chamberlain Distinguished Mentor Award, and Leading Mentor in Cancer Prevention. In recognition of her substantial contribution to medicine, Dr. Wu was named as one of Houston's 50 Most Influential Women of 2014.
Dr. Wu has made impactful contribution on using highly innovative and integrative strategies to build big data, discover novel modifiable risk factors, uncover molecular signatures, and create robust prediction models across the cancer continuum with evidence-based artificial intelligence to advance precision health. She is a world-renowned public health expert and highly productive cancer epidemiologist with over 920 peer-review papers, invited articles and editorials in journals such as Nature Genetics, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JAMA, British Medical Journal, New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature; Dr. Wu’s publications have an H index of 112 with a total of 50776 citations (The most cited paper was her Lancet 2011 paper with 2602 citations). She has served on grant review committees for the US National Cancer Institute, the European Research Council, the Cancer Research United Kingdom, China National Molecular Translational Center, and many others.
After joining Zhejiang University, Dr. Wu leads the construction of national premier school of public health, and was granted the Healthy Zhejiang Million People Cohort, which focuses on building the world's top high-capacity public health and universal health science and innovation platform in China, and promoting the synergistic development of education, science and technology as well as talents. She was also granted with the National Health Commission and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) project; the Ministry of Education thematic case special project; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology 5G+ healthcare application pilot project; Implement the WHO workforce development roadmap with a focus on emergency preparedness and response program funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the major cooperation special project of Zhejiang Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau; the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Preventive Medicine; Leading Innovative and Entrepreneur Team Introduction Program of Zhejiang; the Natural Science Foundation special project of Zhejiang Province and a series of public health planning projects for the 14th Five-Year Plan and so on.
During the COVID pandemic, Dr. Wu has made significant contributions by providing health promotion, pandemic prediction, health policy consultation, etc. She introduced the successful pandemic control experiences of Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou City at World Economic Forum, which received wide attention.
