Professor David Health, honorary professor of Wenzhou Medical College and honorary director of the National Center of Optometry, Ministry of Public Health, received the Friendship Award from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of the People s Republic of China in 2010. Dr. Heath is the president of State University of New York, College of Optometry in the United States.
Dr. Health has been working with Wenzhou Medical College, along with other medical universities, for nearly twenty years to expand access to eye care in China. Dr. Heath s efforts in China have produced new models of medical education for eye care, national standards in the discipline of optometry, the first international, doctoral-level, joint-degree program in modern China; an emerging model of eye care for serving the visually disabled in the new Center of Excellence in Low Vision and Vision Rehabilitation in Wenzhou and a Confucius Institute to promote Chinese culture.
In 2008 he received the Yandang Friendship Award from the city of Wenzhou, and in 2009received the Westlake friendship Award from the Zhejiang provincial government for his contribution to Wenzhou City and Zhejiang Province. He was also the recipient of the Jack Bennett Innovation in Education Award in 2001 and 2007 from the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry for his leadership in optometric education nationally.
On September 29, 2010, at the People s Great Hall in Beijing, Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang presented Professor David Health with the Friendship Award certificate and a gold medal. On September 30, the awardees were warmly greeted by Premier Wen Jiabao and invited to attend the National Banquet in the evening. 50 Foreign Experts were presented the Friendship Award of People s Republic of China in 2010. Prof. David Heath delivered a speech on behalf of all awardees.
