Dr. Yawei Zhang is the Chair of the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Center (NCC); Associate Director of the National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. Before join the NCC China in 2021, Dr. Zhang was an Associate Professor with tenure, Section Chief of Surgical Outcomes and Epidemiology at the Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, Co-Assistant Director of Yale Cancer Center Global Oncology, and an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Zhang has served as a member of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Ethics Committee, Secretary Elect of the Asian National Cancer Center Alliance (ANCCA), and a leadership role in several professional organizations in China including Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, China Anti-Cancer Association, and Beijing Research Association for Chronic Diseases Control and Health Education. She is the General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Global Health, an Editor of the Popularization Science Educational Manual for Primary Cancer Prevention, an Associate Editor for the Journal of the National Cancer Center and Frontiers in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.

Dr. Zhang is an epidemiologist working in the fields of cancer epidemiology, environmental health, and health-related big data. Dr. Zhang is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals in her field with H-index of 79. As a Principal Investigator or co-Investigator, she has been leading or involved in more than 30 grants which have been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Natural Science Foundation of China, and China Ministry of Science and Technology. Dr. Zhang served as a regular member of the study sections at the NIH and ACS, as well as an ad hoc member on several special emphasis panels at the NIH. Over the recent years, Dr. Zhang is leading an effort on primary cancer prevention in China, with establishing China Code Against Cancer and its website, building Smart Health Management Digital Platform for Primary Cancer Prevention (SmartHMDP-PCP), and training next generation of scientists on cancer prevention and control through IARC’s first regional center, IARC-NCC China Learning Center.