George F. Gao, Director General of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), was elected as a foreign associate by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on April 30. The recognition is considered one of the highest honors a scientist or engineer can receive in the U.S.

Gao is also dean of the Savaid Medical School of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and vice president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research interests include the molecular mechanism of interspecies transmission of pathogens, molecular virology, and molecular immunology.

Gao received his bachelor's degree from Shanxi Agricultural University in 1983 and a PhD from the University of Oxford in 2004. He worked at the University of Oxford as a lecturer and doctoral supervisor from 2001 to 2004 before returning to China to head the CAS Institute of Microbiology. Gao started his career at China CDC in 2011.