Dr. David D. Ho Awarded Honorary Doctorate of Tsinghua

Dr. David D. Ho Awarded Honorary Doctorate of Tsinghua

By Li Han

Staff Writer of the Tsinghua News Center

Dr. David D. Ho, the Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Director of Committee of 100, was awarded Tsinghua University Doctorate on September 19.

Tsinghua President Gu Binglin attended the awarding ceremony held in the main building and awarded the diploma to Dr. David D. Ho. Tsinghua Vice President Xie Weihe hosted the ceremony. Also attending the ceremony were Professor C. N. Yang, the Nobel Prize Winner, Ms. Shelley Lee J.P., Director of Home Affairs Department, Hong Kong SAR Government, Professor He Meiying, President of Tsinghua University Education Foundation, Mr. Carter Tseng, Member of Committee of 100, Mr. Peter Liu, Member of Committee of 100, and Mr. Pu Cunxin, Famous actor and China s AIDS ambassador.

After the ceremony, Dr. David D. Ho delivered a speech titled Preparing for Epidemic Diseases such as HIV, SARS, and Influenza.

Dr. Ho received his degrees from California Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. He has been actively engaged in AIDS research for more than 20 years. He is most recognized for the elucidation of the dynamic nature of HIV replication in infected persons. This basic understanding led Dr.

Ho and his coworkers to be the pioneer of combination antiretroviral therapy, which has resulted in dramatic reductions in AIDS-associated mortality in developed countries since 1996. In addition, his research team is now devoting considerable efforts to develop a vaccine to halt the spread of the AIDS epidemic.

(Photo by Guo Haijun)