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Abstract
Professor Chen Wang, Director of the Centre for Respiratory Medicine at Beijing's China–Japan Friendship Hospital, is the new President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC).Of the several reasons for welcoming the appointment, the most obvious is Wang's expertise in the respiratory diseases that are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in his country and impose a great socioeconomic burden.[...]he makes no secret of his enthusiasm for curbing tobacco use, which, while now recognised by the Chinese Government as a key public health issue, remains high.Underpinning Wang's presidential, administrative, teaching, and policy work (“I have 4 hours to sleep at night,” he jokes) are his research achievements.Besides the ground-breaking thrombolysis findings, he headed a national epidemiological study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease—it turned out to be more than twice as common as previously believed—and led the world's largest clinical trial of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for managing respiratory failure.