Eric Ding

Eric L. Ding (born 1983 in Shanghai) is an American public health scientist in nutrition and epidemiology, a faculty at Harvard School of Public Health, founder of the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, Director of Epidemiology with Microclinic International, a WEF Global Shaper, and a Soros Fellow.^[1]

Ding was recognized in the New York Times^[2] as a whistle-blower in the Vioxx controversy surrounding the drug safety and risks of Vioxx®, Celebrex®, and Bextra®, and founded the a large online initiative to fund and accelerate medical research.^[3] He also writes as a contributor for The Huffington Post.^[4]

Early life and education

Ding was born in Shanghai, China, and was raised in the United States. He is an alum of the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Health Care.^[5] As a child, doctors discovered that he had developed a baseball-size tumor in his chest. His initial prognosis was for less than 5 years life,^[6] but he survived.

Ding attended The Johns Hopkins University, graduating with Honors in Public Health and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his dual doctorate in epidemiology, doctorate in nutrition, and doctoral minor in biostatistics, from Harvard at age 23. He then completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. At Harvard, has lectured in 2 dozen courses public health and clinical research, and has received the Derek Bok Distinction in Teaching Award from Harvard College. He once attended Boston University School of Medicine, but did not receive a degree.

Work

Ding's research focuses on obesity and nutritional risk factors for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer - with focus on translational approaches for health communication, prevention, social networks on health, and social media technology for health. His expertise also includes evidence-based medicine, and global disease burden and policy. He has published major reports, including in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, PLoS Medicine, The Lancet, which together have received over 3400 external citations.

Ding is a recipient of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans,^[7] and as chief corresponding author of a JAMA report, recognized for his role as a whistle-blower of the controversial drug safety of Vioxx and other COX-2 inhibitor drugs, he was recognized and named in the New York Times and USA Today.

He has also served as advisor for the World Health Organization and the EU European Commission, as judge for the annual VH1 Do Something Awards, and is an appointed expert member of the Global Burden of Disease Project^[8] and US Burden of Disease Collaboration. His work has been cited by directors of CDC and CMMS in the framework of the federal "Million Hearts" Initiative,^[9] his research twice recognized as ‘Best of American Heart Association’. He has also consulted for the WHO and the European Commission, and serves as Director of Epidemiology of Microclinic International,^[10] as co-principal investigator of several intervention programs for obesity and diabetes prevention in the US and abroad.

Having survived a childhood battle with a baseball-sized tumor, Ding founded the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, and was featured in Newsweek,^[11] the New York Times,.^[12] He is also known for developing a direct-to-science model for accelerating cancer research, and advocate of crowdfunding for medical research.^[13] To date, his efforts have raised over $500,000 in public donations for innovative cancer research, and directs cancer prevention advocacy platforms totaling over 6 million members.

A former keynote presenter at Google TechTalk, he been featured in Google Research^[14] for development of a 130-year cohort study of Major League Baseball to study obesity and mortality. Ding's work has been mentioned in books, including CauseWired,^[15] and Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business,^[16] and Shift & Reset: Strategies for Addressing Serious Issues in a Connected Society.^[17]

He was recognized by Craig Newmark as among “16 People and Organizations Changing the World in 2012”. He also received the 2012 Outstanding Young Leader Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce.^[18] He formerly served on the Board of Advisors for Madonna's Raising Malawi Foundation.^[19]

References

External links

• Website at Harvard School of Public Health