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training at the
Department of Physiology of the same Medical College and
completed his thesis work in 1962. He was then assigned to
work at the Department of Physiology, Shanghai First Medical
College. From 1975 to 1977, he was the Deputy Head of the
Shanghai Medical Team working at Tibet.
From 1979 through 1981, he worked as a visiting scholar in
Professor Björn
Folkow¡¯s laboratory at the Department of Physiology, University
of Gothenburg, Sweden, majoring in circulation physiology. On
returning China in 1981, Dr. Yao was appointed Deputy-Chair and
promoted Associate Professorship (1982), and was then Chairman
(1984) and Professor (1986) of the Department of Physiology,
Deputy Dean (1984-1987) and Dean (1988) of the School of Basic
Medical Sciences, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies
(1988-1997), Vice President (1988-1993) and President
(1994-2000) of Shanghai Medical University. Since the merger of
the Shanghai Medical University and Fudan University in April
2000, he resumed working at the Department of Physiology and
Pathophysiology of Fudan University.
In 1982, Dr. Yao
was recruited to serve on the Editorial Board of the Acta
Physiologica Sinica, and became a standing member and Associate
Editor-in-Chief in 1985. Beginning 1985, he also served on the
Editorial Board of the Chinese Journal of Physiological Sciences
(published in English), and was an Associate Editor-in-Chief
since 1992. In January 1989, he was accepted as a member of the
International Brain Research Organization. He was invited to
serve, from 1993 to 2001, on the Editorial Board of Blood
Pressure, a journal endorsed by the European Society of
Hypertension. In 1999, he was invited to serve on the
International Advisory Board of the Journal of Applied
Physiology, and on the Editorial Board of the journal Clinical
and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology. In 1995, he was
appointed Director of the State Key Laboratory for Medical
Neurobiology. After completing his term of directorship, he was
appointed Chairman of the Academic Committee of the key
laboratory. In October 1997, Dr. Yao was elected standing
member and Vice President of the Council of the Chinese
Association for Physiological Sciences. In addition, he was or
still is member of the Third and Fourth Discipline Assessment
Groups of the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council,
member of the Academic Degree Committee of the Ministry of
Health, member of the First and Second Academic Degree Committee
of the Shanghai Municipality, standing member and Vice President
(1994-1998) of the Council of the Chinese Association for
Academic Degree and Graduate Education, and standing member and
President (1997-2000) of the Council of Shanghai Society for
Graduate Studies.
For years, Dr.
Yao has been engaged in teaching and research. He was a
contributor of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
editions and the Editor of the 5th edition of the
textbook ¡°Physiology¡± endorsed by the Ministry of Health. He
participated in the compilation of the 2nd edition of
the book ¡°Human Physiology¡±, and was the Editor of the 3rd
edition of the book (published in 2001 by the People¡¯s Health
Publishing House). Dr. Yao¡¯s research interest is the
physiology of autonomic nervous system, the neural regulation of
cardiovascular and renal activities. In 1960s he studied the
characteristics of the sympathetic nerve discharges. Then he
joined the research project on the mechanism of acupuncture
analgesia. While working in Tibet in 1970s, he and his
colleagues made an investigation on the physiological changes of
Han sojourners at altitudes in comparison with those of the
native Tibetans. As a visiting scholar, he worked in the
University of Gothenburg studying the acupuncture-like somatic
nerve stimulation-induced long-lasting depressor response in
spontaneously hypertensive rats, the characteristics of the
cardiac receptors of the spontaneously hypertensive rats, and
the characteristics of the non-myelinated fibers from the
carotid sinus baroreceptor of the rabbit. Since 1980s he has
been studying the mechanism of normalization of abnormal blood
pressure and the resetting of baroreceptor reflex by acupuncture
and somatic nerve stimulation, effects of brain osmoreceptor
stimulation on sympathetic nerve discharge and renal activity,
the role of vasopressin in body fluid and salt homeostasis,
difference in gene expression between hypertensive and
normotensive rats, hypertension and cardiac ischemia-induced
myocardial remodeling, effect of steroids on the nervous system,
etc. With his research achievements, Dr. Yao was awarded
Science and Technology Progress Prize sponsored by the State
Education Commission (Grade A Award in 1986, Grade B Award in
1995) and by the Ministry of Health (Grade B Award in 1989 and
1993), Grade A Award of Guang-Hua Science and Technology Prize
(1995), and Chinese Universities¡¯ Science and Technology Prize
(Grade B Award in 2000).
When Dr.
Yao chaired the Department of Physiology, he led the faculty to
strive for the improvement of teaching and research and the
Department of Physiology was awarded Model Unit of Shanghai (1985)
and National Advanced Unit in Education (1986), and he himself was
awarded Model Worker by the Shanghai Municipal Government (1987)
and May Day Medal by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. In
1989, Dr. Yao was invited to chair a symposium of ¡°Advances in
Acupuncture Research¡± in the Thirty -First International Congress
for Physiological Sciences held in Helsinki, Finland. In 1990,
Dr. Yao was invited by the University of Auckland to pay a formal
visit to the University at Auckland, New Zealand. In October
1997, Professor Tai Yao was conferred Honorary Doctorate by the
University of Gothenburg at Gothenburg, Sweden. ¡¡ |
