Zhang Zhaohuan

Zhang Zhaohuan

Professor Zhang, Zhaohuan (张照寰) was born in Zhenjiang, China, in 1925. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Shanghai Medical College (currently, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University) in 1950. Due to his outstanding school performance and academic potential, he was offered a lectureship by his alma mater upon his graduation—a practice that is still in vogue in almost all universities in China when recruiting exceptional faculty members is difficult. In eight years that followed, he worked there first as lecturer and then an associate professor and associate director.

Professor Zhang was among the few doctors in China who saw the value of prevention. Ever since he was a fresh medical graduate, he had passionately advocated that prevention rather than treatment was more effective and should be a primary strategy in controlling the widespread infectious diseases and improving the overall health of the general Chinese population. He devoted his entire career to his conviction through research and teaching. He was one of the founders of the Department of Health (now known as School of Public Health) at Shanghai Medical College. He was a revered scholar, a pioneer researcher in health statistics and biostatistics in China, and a public health practitioner.

In the height of the so-called “Great Leap Forward” era in 1958, an institutionalized frenzy with an ostensible yet unrealistic aim to overtake the Britain in economic output, he was dispatched to the then newly established Chongqing Medical School (重庆医学院, currently Chongqing Medical University) to establish a new academic department – the Department of Preventive Medicine, in which he was regarded as the founder ever since. During his over-20-year tenure as an associate professor and Chairman of that department, his accomplishments in teaching and research had been well recognized.

From 1979 till his retirement after he returned to Shanghai Medical University, he had been a full professor of Medical statistics, vice Chairman in the Department of Health Statistics and Social Medicine. At a time when biostatistics received little, if any, attention in the medical field, he was prescient to foresee its important roles in medical research and contended that vigorous research design and statistical analysis were indispensable part of good medical research. Despite his lack of formal mathematical and statistical training, he taught himself sophisticated statistical theories and became remarkably skillful and creative in applying biostatistics to biomedical problems. He was among the first few investigators who, in working with his students, introduced advanced biostatistical methods from western countries to China. A few examples are multiple linear regression, logistic regression, Cox regression, proportional hazards models, multi-stage survival model, structural equation modeling, generalized linear model, and epidemic model, which are now widely used by epidemiologists and other medical researchers in China. Considering the precarious political atmosphere back then in China when the nation was heavily ravaged by seemingly incessant political turmoils, these accomplishments were quite a feat.

At Shanghai Medical University, he designed, introduced, and lectured many courses, including “Introduction to Biostatistics” and “Clinical Trials” to medical students, “Design of Experiments” and “Multivariate Analysis” to graduate students in public health, and “Quality Control” to students in health administration. He was a gifted educator with the ability to tailor esoteric statistical materials according to students’ background and needs. He had the charisma to attract students’ attention and animate his classes.

During his almost near half-century academic career, Professor Zhang received numerous awards and held many positions including director for the Division of Medical Statistics and Social Medicine in the Institute of Preventive Medicine of Shanghai Medical University, panel member for professional evaluation board for Shanghai Medical University, and School of Public Health, member of the national education, a board member for reviewing teaching material for School of Public Health. In 1983, he was sent by Ministry of Health to Austria, Yugoslavia and Sweden as a visiting scholar to further broaden his research and promote international collaborations.

Besides his recognized excellence and contributions in biostatistics, his research interests also spanned to other areas in the broadly defined preventive medicine and public health. The research projects he led and the scientific publications he produced were also in occupational epidemiology, women and children's health, geriatrics, infectious diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. He published more than 300 scientific papers and textbooks, many of which were highly regarded and are still in use in China.

Professor Zhang supervised many graduate students at Master or Ph.D level, who now work in universities, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Canada, England, Australia and China.

Professor Zhang’s passion in research and teaching did not end with his retirement in 1991. Instead, he continued supervising graduate students, providing consultation service to various institutions across China, and collaborating in a number of research projects. He earned his reputation and respect by his dedication and scholarly distinction. The School of Public Health, Shanghai Medical University, as well as the Chinese public health community as a whole is deeply indebted to his contributions.

Professor Zhang was a man of impeccable integrity, an accomplished educator, a true scholar who valued knowledge over bureaucratic power, a visionary who foresaw the utility of mathematics and statistics in medical research in China, and an avid advocate for preventional medicine. He is now highly regarded among biostatisticians and epidemiologists in China.