1.Program Overview

To introduce high-quality educational resources from home and abroad, broaden students' international horizons, and cultivate cross-cultural thinking, the "HUST Global Summer School — 2026 Tongji Public Health Summer School & South-South Public Health Education Network (SSPHEN) Summer School" will be held this summer. The program aims to enhance the international competitiveness of faculty and the global competence of students, and is open to faculty and students from both HUST and our domestic and international partner institutions.

As a core component of the HUST Global Summer School, the "2026 Tongji Public Health Summer School" has invited multiple medical experts from our global partner universities to deliver lectures, offering a total of 7 courses.

Upon completing the relevant courses in accordance with their respective school's requirements, HUST students may apply for corresponding course credits, which can be counted toward their graduate-level credit requirements.

2.Program Duration

July 8 — July 29, 2026

3.Eligibility and Basic Requirements for Applicants

The program is open to all faculty and students of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), faculty and students from HUST's domestic and international partner institutions, as well as students, faculty members, researchers, and professional and technical personnel from other universities, research institutions, medical and health organizations, and other relevant entities.

4.Program Structure and Completion Requirements

All courses will be delivered in English and conducted in a hybrid format, combining both online and in-person instruction (for international participants, all courses will be delivered online). Visiting faculty will travel to the university to deliver in-person teaching sessions. The on-site venue is Building 1 of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology; specific classroom arrangements will be announced separately. If the number of in-person participants exceeds venue capacity or course intake limits, participants may be adjusted to online attendance based on overall enrollment arrangements.

Participants who complete the required coursework, meet the attendance requirements, and fulfill all assigned learning tasks will be eligible for program completion and will receive a certificate of participation.

Participants are expected to comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, as well as relevant university policies and management requirements, and to follow all academic and organizational arrangements of the program. Participants shall bear responsibility for any consequences arising from violations of these rules due to personal reasons.

5.Program Fees

The 2026 Tongji Public Health Summer School is free of charge for faculty and students of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).

For all other applicants, the fee structure is as follows: 1,000 RMB per course for domestic payments, or 150 USD per course for international payments. A unified fee standard applies regardless of whether participants attend online or in person.

Notes:

a.The above fees cover course participation only. Participants are responsible for their own travel arrangements, accommodation, daily living expenses, and any related costs (including transportation, lodging, meals, and insurance) incurred during the program.

b.All applications will be reviewed upon submission. Successful applicants will receive a confirmation letter. Those required to pay the program fee must complete payment in accordance with the instructions in the confirmation letter. Registration will only be considered complete upon successful payment.

6.Course Overview

(For full course details, please refer to the registration form at the end of this notice.)

1)Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Vaccine Evaluation

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 8-9: 9:00-12:00, 14:00-17:00; July 10: 9:00-12:00 (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Benjamin John Cowling, The University of Hong Kong, China

∙About the Instructor: Prof. Ben Cowling is currently Chair of Epidemiology, Helen and Francis Zimmern Professor in Population Health, head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, and co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control. He conducts research into the epidemiology of respiratory virus infections, with a focus on transmission dynamics and the effectiveness of control measures, including vaccination. Since early 2020, he has conducted research on the epidemiology and control of COVID-19, including highly cited publications in NEJM, Science and Nature Medicine. He has authored more than 850 peer-reviewed journal publications to date with more than 58,000 citations, with an H-index of 98 (Scopus). He has been listed as a Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher; since 2021 and has been listed among the top 1% most cited scientists globally since 2014.

2)Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology 1

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 17-21, 14:00-17:00 daily (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Yi Lu, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

∙About the Instructor: Dr. Lu Yi works as a Principal Researcher at Karolinska Institutet, where she also directs the KI Psychiatric Genomics Institute. Dr. Lu leads a multidisciplinary team at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, to identify genetic risk factors for common complex disorders, especially psychiatric disorders. By integrating large-scale genomics, single-cell transcriptomics and many other cutting-edge technologies, Dr. Lu's work aims to uncover biological mechanisms that can be targeted for new therapies and more precise, subgroup-tailored treatments. As co-chair of the Depression Working Group at the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium—the world’s largest collaborative network in psychiatric genomics;Dr. Lu is dedicated to fostering international partnerships, promoting open data sharing, and accelerating the translation of discoveries into clinical applications.

3)Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology 2

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 22-26, 14:00-17:00 daily (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Yang Jingjing, Emory University, USA

∙About the Instructor: Professor Jingjing Yang, Associate Professor at Emory University, USA, completed her Ph.D. in statistics at Rice University and has been studying Statistical Genetics since her Postdoctoral training at the Biostatistics Department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She is interested in developing statistical methods and tools to integrate multi-omics data for studying complex human diseases, such as Alzheimer's Disease, mobility disability, and Parkinson's disease. We utilize Bayesian statistical methods, machine learning, and deep learning methods with efficient computational algorithms for studying multi-omics data. Her lab has also been working on analyzing next-generation sequence data (bulk seq and single nucleus seq) and biomedical signal/image data. The programming languages we use include R, Python, C++, and Perl. The computation environments we use are Linux/Unix computation clusters with shell/bash scripts and Amazon Web Services. The current research topics include integrating molecular genomics data and functional annotations with GWAS summary data for mapping risk genes of complex diseases, deriving risk prediction models for Alzheimer's disease, and sequencing data analysis.

4)Clinical Applications of Epidemiology

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 10: 14:00-17:00; July 11-12: 9:00-12:00, 14:00-17:00 daily (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Oscar H. Franco, Utrecht University, Netherlands

∙About the Instructor: Prof. Oscar H. Franco is full Professor of Public Health, Director of the Department of Global Public Health & Bioethics and Chairman of Healthy Living at UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands. Furthermore, Oscar is an Adjunct Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University of Bern, and scientific advisor for the French television channel France24. Prof. Franco has published over 970 publications and has an H-index of 151. In 2012, Prof. Franco returned to ErasmusMC, where he worked as a professor of preventive medicine and the principal investigator of the cardiovascular epidemiology group. He also founded and directed the Rotterdam Intergenerational Ageing Research Center, Erasmus AGE, and he was co-founder and CEO of Erasmus Epidemiology Resources. Afterwards, from 2018 until 2022, Prof. Franco worked as a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) at the University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. As a fellow of, inter alia, the European Society of Cardiology and St Edmunds College at the University of Cambridge, Prof. Franco was awarded the Dutch national public health prize of 2005.

5)Scientific Writing

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 13-17, 9:00-12:00 daily (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Koh Woon-Puay, National University of Singapore

∙About the Instructor: Professor Koh is Professor in Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). Being a population health scientist, Prof Koh’s research is in studying the epidemiology of important chronic diseases in Singapore and worldwide. She is the Principal Investigator of the 63,257-strong Singapore Chinese Health Study, and has co-authored about 525 scientific papers on diet, lifestyle and genes in relation to risk of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, end-stage kidney disease, gout, Parkinsons disease, gout, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. More recently, she has also published on factors that could influence important ageing outcomes such as physical frailty, cognitive impairment and aging-related depression. She is listed among the world’s top 2% most cited scientists by Stanford University and has received over $35 million dollars in funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH) in USA and the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) in Singapore. She is a recipient of the NMRC Senior Clinician-Scientist Award. In her role as Assistant Dean and Director for the NUS School of Medicine Clinician-Scientist Development Unit, she mentors budding clinician-scientists and was awarded the Nature Awards for Mentoring in 2023 in recognition of her achievement as a mentor to many in their academic careers in Singapore.

6)Artificial Intelligence in Public Health

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 18-22, 9:00-12:00 daily (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Feng Mengling, National University of Singapore

∙About the Instructor: Mengling Feng is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, where he directs the AI for Public Health (AI4PH) Programme and leads the Biostatistics, Modelling, AI, and Data Analytics (B.MAD) domain. Specialising in healthcare AI, Dr. Feng’s research centres on innovative solutions in medical imaging analysis, treatment recommendation systems, and clinical text processing. He actively participates in international collaborations and serves as Chair of the Singapore Chapter of the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) consortium, promoting standardised healthcare data practices. His significant contributions have earned him accolades, including the Excellent Youth Award at the World Health Forum, the Trailblazer Award by Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and the NUS Innovation Venture Creation (IVC) -Provost’s Innovation Chair Professor Award. Since joining NUS in 2017, Dr. Feng has secured over SGD 10 million in research and translation funding as Lead Principal Investigator, Theme Principal Investigator, and Co-Principal Investigator. He has published nearly 200 papers in top-tier conferences and journals, attracting over 15,000 citations. Dr. Feng is among the top 2% most cited scientists in 2025. Additionally, Dr Feng has been the lead organiser of the annual Singapore Healthcare AI Datathon for the past seven years, drawing thousands of interdisciplinary researchers from the region.

7)Interdisciplinary Methodology for Global Social Determinants of Health Research

∙Format: In-person (with synchronized online streaming)

∙Class Hours: 16 hours

∙Schedule: July 27-28: 9:00-12:00, 14:00-17:00; July 29: 9:00-12:00 (Beijing Time)

∙Instructor: Alec Cali Sam, Heidelberg University, Germany

∙About the Instructor: Dr. Alec Cali holds a PhD. in Sociology from Stony Brook University, USA, and is currently the Research Group Leader of Disability and Exclusion in Healthcare at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health in Germany. They use mixed methodology to understand how structural factors in the health system impact our experiences with addiction, digital health, trust, and alternative health.

7.Application Period

This project uses a rolling admission policy. Applications will be reviewed in batches based on the submission order and application category, and admission notices and payment guidelines will be issued sequentially. Due to limited capacity, while meeting the basic eligibility requirements, admissions will be coordinated comprehensively based on application categories and overall enrollment structure. Applications will close once all available places have been filled.

Please note the following schedule:

∙Registration Deadline for Domestic External Applicants (Applying for In-Person Participation): June 21, 23:59

∙Final Registration Deadline: June 30, 23:59

Since processing payments, eligibility verification, and campus entry logistics may take some time, interested applicants are highly recommended to complete their registration as early as possible. The program reserves the right to make necessary adjustments to the above arrangements as circumstances require.

8.Application Gateway

2026 Tongji Public Health Summer School Registration

(For Non-HUST Applicants Based in China)

2026 Tongji Public Health Summer School Registration

(For Applicants Based Outside China)

9.Contact & Inquiries

∙Contact Person: Ms. Lu, School of Public Health, HUST

∙Email: luyizhong@hust.edu.cn