Dr. Wang Debingflag    Dr. Yao Tai

Professor of Physiology
Fudan University Medical College, Shanghai
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA



Yao Tai was born on January 31, 1938, in Zhejiang Province, China. Dr. Yao is Professor of Physiology at the Fudan University Medical Center. In November 2001, he became the Editor-in-Chief of the Acta Physiologica Sinica.

Yao Tai studied medicine at Shanghai First Medical College and was graduated in 1959. He continued his postgraduate training at the Department of Physiology at that university and completed his thesis work in 1962. He was then assigned to work at the Department of Physiology, Shanghai First Medical College. From 1975 to 1977, he was the Deputy Head of the Shanghai Medical Team working in Tibet.

From 1979 through 1981, he worked as a visiting scholar in the Department of Physiology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, majoring in circulation physiology. On returning to China in 1981, Dr. Yao was appointed Deputy-Chair and promoted Associate Professorship (1982), and was then Chairman (1984) and Professor (1986) of the Department of Physiology, Deputy Dean (1984-1987) and Dean (1988) of the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies (1988-1997), Vice President (1988-1993) and President (1994-2000) of Shanghai Medical University. Since the merger of the Shanghai Medical University and Fudan University in April 2000, he resumed working at the Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology of Fudan University.

In 1982, Dr. Yao was recruited to serve on the Editorial Board of the Acta Physiologica Sinica, and became a standing member and Associate Editor-in-Chief in 1985. Beginning 1985, he also served on the Editorial Board of the Chinese Journal of Physiological Sciences (published in English), and was an Associate Editor-in-Chief since 1992. In January 1989, he was accepted as a member of the International Brain Research Organization. He was invited to serve, from 1993 to 2001, on the Editorial Board of Blood Pressure, a journal endorsed by the European Society of Hypertension. In 1999, he was invited to serve on the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Applied Physiology, and on the Editorial Board of the journal Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology. In 1995, he was appointed Director of the State Key Laboratory for Medical Neurobiology. After completing his term of directorship, he was appointed Chairman of the Academic Committee of the key laboratory. In October 1997, Dr. Yao was elected standing member and Vice President of the Council of the Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences. In addition, he was or still is a member of the Third and Fourth Discipline Assessment Groups of the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, the Academic Degree Committee of the Ministry of Health, the First and Second Academic Degree Committee of the Shanghai Municipality, Vice President (1994-1998) of the Council of the Chinese Association for Academic Degree and Graduate Education, and President (1997-2000) of the Council of Shanghai Society for Graduate Studies.

For years, Dr. Yao has been engaged in teaching and research. He was a contributor of the second, third, and fourth editions and the Editor of the fifth edition of the textbook "Physiology" endorsed by the Ministry of Health. He participated in the compilation of the second edition of the book "Human Physiology" and was the Editor of the third edition of the book (published in 2001 by the People's Health Publishing House). Dr. Yao's research interest is the physiology of autonomic nervous system, the neural regulation of cardiovascular and renal activities. In 1960's he studied the characteristics of the sympathetic nerve discharges, and joined the research project on the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia. While working in Tibet in 1970's, he and his colleagues investigated the physiological changes of Han sojourners at altitudes in comparison with those of the native Tibetans. As a visiting scholar, he worked in the University of Gothenburg studying the acupuncture-like somatic nerve stimulation-induced long-lasting depressor response in spontaneously hypertensive rats, the characteristics of the cardiac receptors of the spontaneously hypertensive rats, and the characteristics of the non-myelinated fibers from the carotid sinus baroreceptor of the rabbit. Since 1980's he has been studying the mechanism of normalization of abnormal blood pressure and the resetting of baroreceptor reflex by acupuncture and somatic nerve stimulation, effects of brain osmoreceptor stimulation on sympathetic nerve discharge and renal activity, the role of vasopressin in body fluid and salt homeostasis, difference in gene expression between hypertensive and normotensive rats, hypertension and cardiac ischemia-induced myocardial remodeling, effect of steroids on the nervous system, etc. With his research achievements, Dr. Yao was awarded Science and Technology Progress Prize sponsored by the State Education Commission (Grade A Award in 1986, Grade B Award in 1995) and by the Ministry of Health (Grade B Award in 1989 and 1993), Grade A Award of Guang-Hua Science and Technology Prize (1995), and the Chinese Universities Science and Technology Prize (Grade B Award in 2000).

When Dr. Yao chaired the Department of Physiology, he led the faculty to strive for the improvement of teaching and research and the Department of Physiology was awarded Model Unit of Shanghai (1985) and National Advanced Unit in Education (1986), and he himself was awarded Model Worker by the Shanghai Municipal Government (1987) and May Day Medal by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. In 1989, Dr. Yao was invited to chair a symposium of Advances in Acupuncture Research in the Thirty-First International Congress for Physiological Sciences held in Helsinki, Finland. In 1990, Dr. Yao was invited by the University of Auckland to pay a formal visit to the University at Auckland, New Zealand. In October 1997, Professor Yao Tai was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gothenburg at Gothenburg, Sweden.

  Institute for International Medical Education.
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