Duke Kunshan University recently announced that Dr. Fujie Xu, who has nearly 30 years of experience in public health research and project management, will become the co-director of the Global Health Program in January 2025.
She will work with Dr. Shenglan Tang to oversee the development of Global Health at DKU and lead world-class faculty and staff, supervise the academic and research activities of the Global Health Research Center, and develop Duke Kunshan University into one of the world’s leading universities in the field of global health. She will also teach global health relevant courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Dr. Xu has accumulated extensive experience in global health practice and research in the United States, China and around the world. In this role, she is dedicated to minimize all existing or emerging infectious disease threats and promote the vision of “health for all” by cultivating a new generation of global health talents.
Dr. Xu will focus on health innovations and their implementation. Her research and project interests will cover:
- Develop health innovations to address infectious diseases and possible pandemics, including applying genomic sequencing technology to understand the transmission dynamics and to detect emerging infections or variants and guide the development of countermeasures of vaccines and diagnostics; collaborating with Duke-NUS to introduce the technology into Asian countries (check the initiative); and accelerating the innovation and adoption of NGS for global health.
- Promote evidence generation, guideline development, and partnership to create real-world impact, including enhancing the partnership with public and private sectors that may involve government agencies, pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies, academia, and philanthropic funders in China and beyond for advocacy and global health practices.
Dr. Xu graduated from Peking Medical University (currently the Peking University Health Science Center) and received her PhD in Epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. Her past career experiences include the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gilead Sciences, and Zhejiang University. In May 2020, she joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation China Country Office as Deputy Director for Health Innovation and Partnerships to accelerate the development of vaccines, diagnostics and antimicrobials against pandemic and endemic infectious diseases.
