Tianfu Friendship Award is an honorary prize exclusively for foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Sichuan Province. Professor David James Kerr, one of WCH’s foreign experts from UK, has become one of the winners this year.

Professor Kerr is now a lifetime professor of oncology sciences from the University of Oxford (ranking top first in the world-wide medical education), and also an honorary professor of oncology sciences from the Medical Science Division of the University of Oxford; a member of Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons & Physicians member of the Royal College of Physicians of London, honorary member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, founding member of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, elected member of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, and former president of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

He now serves as the British director of Sichuan University-Oxford University Huaxi Joint Center for Gastrointestinal Cancer (“the Joint Center”) and from March 2022, he has been employed as a part-time special expert of WCH.

Professor Kerr contributed a lot to the founding of the Joint Center for Gastrointestinal Cancer, which has produced significant influence in both China and Britain as well as the international community. As the British director, he joined hands with WCH to hold annual academic conferences regularly, invited a number of Chinese and foreign top scholars in the field of oncology to deliver lectures to WCH faculty and students, and built high-level international academic exchange platforms in a bid to strengthen high-quality research at the Center. 

He has jointly trained five young doctors and students from WCH, and successfully introduced three world-class talents in the oncological area, successfully co-applied for scientific research grants; Aso he has cooperated with WCH in publishing over 30 high-level papers. Meanwhile, Professor Kerr has provided guidance for the work of West China Gastroenterology Alliance, which has boosted its discipline development in western China.

At present, Professor Kerr is taking initiatives in preparing the construction of China-UK University Consortium on Medicine and Health, introduces WCH to the outside world, boosts the strength of relevant disciplines of WCH and enhances its reputation worldwide. In a word, he has done a lot of terrific work.