AWARDEE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

HUNG TAO

Abstract

Prof. Hung Tao, a virologist, was born in July 1931 in Rongcheng, Shandong Province. He graduated from Shandong Medical College in 1955 and obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Virology Romania in 1960. After returning to China in the same year, he worked in the Institute of Virology,Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences where he was entrusted to set up the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy and Department of Virus Morphology. He has published about 200 papers in China and abroad being the author of 8 books, among them “Biomedical Ultrastructure and Electron Microscopy”,“Atlas of Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome”(in Chinese and English version) have been widly used and acclaimed.
Prof. Hung Taos major contributions to medical virology may summarize as follow: Discovery of the morphology and morphogenesis of HFRS viruses, a break through to the eventual characterization of HFRS virus; Discovery and characterization of human group B rotavirus, the causative agent of large scale outbreaks of adult diarrhea rotavirus (ADRV). It is the unique human group B rotavirus in the world; Laying down the basis for studying prion (proteinaceous infectious particle) and presenile dementia (CJD) in China.
Prof. Hung Tao, has been awarded with 15 awards by the Ministry of Health, Commission of Science and Technology as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) in recognition of his outstanding contributions in virology, Due to his original contributions, he has been elected member of Chinese Academy of Engineering; president, Chinese Society of Medical Virology; president of the Scientific Committee of Public Health and Medicine.