Zhengming Chen

Professor Zhengming Chen is Richard Peto Professor of Epidemiology at Nuffield Department of Population Health and a Senior Research Fellow of Green Templeton College. He qualified in medicine at Shanghai Medical University in 1983 (now Fudan University) and completed his DPhil in Epidemiology at the University of Oxford in 1991. He was awarded an ad hominem Readership in Epidemiology in 1998 and an ad hominem Professorship of Epidemiology in 2006 by the University of Oxford. In 2022, he was appointed as the inaugural Richard Peto Chair in Epidemiology. 

Professor Chen’s main research focus concerns causes, prevention and treatment of major chronic disease. Over the last few decades, he has initiated and led several large international randomised trials (e.g. CAST, COMMIT/CCS-2) involving in total more than 100,000 patients, leading to major changes of international guidelines and clinical practice. In 2003, he initiated and established, and has led as UK PI ever since, the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) of 512,000 adults, one of the world’s largest of its kind. The CKB will continue to generate important findings relevant to global health for at least the next 15-20 years. In Oxford he leads a large and expanding multi-disciplinary research team involving >50 staff and DPhil students, with research themes covering lifestyle factors, environmental health, chronic infection, genetic epidemiology, risk prediction, and application of big data in development of precision medicine and population health. 

Professor Chen also holds honorary professorships of several universities in China and sits on a number of international and UK research committees (e.g. Hong Kong Research Council, UK MRC, and the Wellcome Trust). He is an elected Fellow of Academia Europaea.