School of Public Health

The history of School of Public Health (SPH), Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center (XJTU-HSC) dates back to the establishment of the relevant discipline of public health in September 1949 by the former Northwest Medical College (NWMC). The precursor of the School was the Department of Preventive Medicine (DPM), Xi’an Medical University (XMU), established in 1986, which was then expanded to the School of Public Health (SPH) in 1997. In 2000, Xi’an Medical University and Shaanxi Institute of Finance and Economics were merged into the currently known Xi’an Jiaotong University; and SPH has become a subordinated institute administered by XJTU-HSC.

Currently, the School is authorized to offer postdoctoral research programs, doctoral and master research degree programs in Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and also the Master of Public Health (MPH) program. It supports several key facilities, including, the Key Laboratory of Trace Elements and Endemic Diseases Research of the National Health Commission, Shaanxi Provincial Nutrition and Food Safety Engineering, Shaanxi Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center of Endemic Diseases and Health Promotion for Silk Road Region., China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Infectious Diseases and XJTU-UCL Joint Research Center for Molecular Medicine and Endemic Diseases. The School also coordinates the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, Department of Child, Adolescent and Maternal Health, Department of Health Toxicology and Inspection,the Institution of Endemic Diseases, Research Center for Health Reform and Development and Experimental Teaching Center. Since 2016, with the development of the Western China Science and Technology Innovation Harbor Wisdom Uni-town (iHarbor, new campus of XJTU), the SPH started to support the establishment of Global Health Institute (GHI) in the iHarbor, consisting of Center for Systematic Science and Big Data, Center for Non-Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Environmental Health and Endemic Disease Control and Prevention, and Center for Nutrition and Food Safety. The SPH has developed a high-quality, well-organized and striving team led by senior and high-level talents (5 nationally recognized academic talents so far) and also a large number of mid-career and junior academic staff.

Following the educational orientation of XJTU (rooted in the west, serving the country and first-class worldwide), the SPH gives a full play to the advantages of a comprehensive university, with a strong focus on the global health frontier. It emphasizes interdisciplinary studies on public health, management, science, engineering and arts, integrates medical and health services development, and sanitation, socioeconomic factors, population health and disease epidemic in West China. On this basis, the SPH staff endeavors to develop public health education, research and social service with the aim to develop up public health and preventative medicine discipline with specific characteristics, high standard and internationalization. XJTU is among the first batch of universities in developing MPH (1998) and Doctor of Public Health (Dr.PH, 2011) education in China. Besides, SPH has been offering Summer Vacation Public Health Practice (compulsory course unit) to all the undergraduate students majoring in clinical medicine in XJTU for over 20 years. The course aims to develop the ability of “discovering and solving public health issues near you” in medical students and to fill the knowledge gap between disease prevention and clinical medicine. By 2020, the SPH has enrolled over 3000 students (bachelor, master and doctoral degrees, including international students) graduated, and over 70% of them have chosen to work in West China after graduation. The alumni of SPH-XJTU have become backbone force in areas of healthcare and disease control in West China.

SPH focuses on significant public health issues among the population in the west of China and has developed specific research areas as following: maternal and child nutrition and health evaluation, environmental health and endemic disease, infectious diseases control and prevention, food quality and safety, child development and health, life course health promotion, health policy and medical ethics. The relevant research projects have been supported from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National Health Commission, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and China Medical Board (CMB), et al. In the last five years, the SPH has got over 60 national-level research funding (including National Key Research and Development Project, National Key Research and Development Plan “Inter-Governmental Cooperation in International Scientific and Technological Innovation” Key Projects, National Science and Technology Key Projects on “Major Infectious Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis Prevention and Treatment”, International Cooperation Key Program of NSFC, Distinguished Youth Program of NSFC), over 80 provincial-level research funding and over 40 commercial research funding. A lot of studies from SPH have been published in prestigious international peer-reviewed journals, e.g., BMJ, Circulation, Lancet Global Health, Lancet Public Health, JAMA Pediatrics, Nature Neuroscience, Science Translational Medicine, and Hepatology, including a few studies regarded as F1000 by international authorities. The SPH have won 2 prizes of Klaus Schwarz awarded by the International Association of Bioinorganic Scientists and 2 First Prizes of Shaanxi Science and Technology Progress Award. The SPH has held a series of high-level international conferences, including The Belt & Road Initiative Global Health International Congress, and is publishing three core academic journals (e.g., China Medical Ethics, as Editor-in-Chief).

Under the guidance of Xi’an Jiaotong University’s Spirit of West Relocation of Jiaotong University (Thinking the Big Picture, Selfless Dedication; Carrying Forward Traditions and Hard Work), and XJTU-HSC’s Spirit of Relocation to Shaanxi during WWII (Developing Medicine and Strengthening the Country, Hard Work, Diligent Education, Rescuing the Dying and Healing the Wounded). The SPH devotes to the construction of iHarbor, and the first class of new students have settled in iHarbour, and it has been in use since 2019. All the faculty and staff of the SPH are working hard with full enthusiasm, seizing the day and live it to the fullest, striving to make greater contributions to the development of the cause of national public health.

Updated in June 2020