On July 28, the Research Institute of Public Health, jointly established by Nankai University (NKU) and Tianjin Medical University (TIJMU), was officially inaugurated. The two universities are committed to building the Institute into a world-class public health and global health multidisciplinary collaborative scientific research and innovation base, a high-level talent training base, a base for the application of scientific research results, and a national public health strategic think tank. Xu Jianguo, a well-known medical microbiologist, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and director of the State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (SKLID) of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), was appointed as the dean of the Joint Institute.

At the ceremony, Yang Qingshan, Director of NKU, Cao Xuetao, President of NKU, Yao Zhi, Director of TIJMU, Yan Hua, President of TIJMU, and Academician Xu Jianguo jointly unveiled the nameplate of Tianjin Research Institute of Public Health. Yang Qingshan, Cao Xuetao and Academician Xu Jianguo jointly unveiled the nameplate of the Research Institute of Public Health of Nankai University. Academician Xu Jianguo successively accepted the letters of appointment of Deans of the two institutes. The unveiling ceremony was presided over by Wang Lei, Vice President of NKU.

Academician Xu Jianguo, a senior expert in the field of public health research in China, is the former Director of the National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention (ICDC), Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), and the former Director of the State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Bacteriology (SKLMMB) of the Ministry of Health. Currently, he serves as the Director of SKLID He believes that the game between humans and the SARS-CoV-2 will inevitably lead to the revolutionary development of theories, technologies, methods, strategies, and products in the fields of infectious diseases, public health, preventive medicine, and disease prevention and control. In response to the changes in the field of public health, NKU and TIJMU are determined, fast, and farsighted.

It is reported that the unveiling ceremony of the Research Institute of Public Health and the National Dean Forum of Public Health Discipline Development was hosted by NKU and TIJMU, and co-organized by the SKLID of China CDC. More than 20 well-known experts and scholars from domestic research institutes such as the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, the ICDC of China CDC, Institute of Materia Medica at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, etc., as well as deans of the schools of public health in Chinese universities, such as Peking University, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Shanxi Medical University, attended the seminar.