MD, PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology at University of Science and Technology of China. He currently serves as Executive Director of Institute of Public Health Sciences and Associate Dean of School of Clinical Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China.

He graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan University with both a medical degree in Preventive Medicine and a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences in 2006. He earned a PhD in Nutrition and Food Hygiene from Tongji Medical College in 2011. He received postdoc research training in life-course epidemiology at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2011-2015. Before joining University of Science and Technology of China in August 2021, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (2016-2021) and then granted promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in 2021 at University of Iowa.

Dr. Bao’s research area includes chronic disease epidemiology and women's and children's health. He has considerable expertise in identifying etiology, risk factors and life-course impact of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, with special interests in diet, lifestyle, environmental factors and biomarkers. His research was funded by the NIH, the Rockefeller Foundation and others. He has published more than 200 papers, including 80+ corresponding-author papers in JAMA, BMJ, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, JAMA Internal Medicine, Diabetes Care, etc.

He serves as Associate Editor of Nutrition Journal and Nutrition & Metabolism, and be a peer reviewer for research grants by NIH, CDC, British Diabetes Society and for manuscripts by BMJ, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, etc.

Research areas

1. Diet, lifestyle and environmental factors of chronic diseases

2. Molecular epidemiology of chronic diseases (biomarkers)

3. Early developmental origin of chronic diseases (DOHaD)

4. Women's and children's health

Selected publications

1. Liu B, Du Y, Wu Y, Snetselaar LG, Wallace RB, Bao W. Trends in obesity and adiposity measures by race or ethnicity among adults in the United States 2011-18: population based study. BMJ. 2021;372:n365.

2. Wu Y, Liu B, Sun Y, Du Y, Santillan MK, Santillan DA, Snetselaar LG, Bao W. Association of maternal prepregnancy diabetes and gestational diabetes mellitus with congenital anomalies of the newborn. Diabetes Care. 2020;43(12):2983-90.

3. Bao W, Liu B, Simonsen DW, Lehmler HJ. Association between exposure to pyrethroid insecticides and risk of all- cause and cause-specific mortality in the general US adult population. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2020;180(3):367-74.

4. Sun Y, Liu B, Snetselaar LG, Robinson JG, Wallace RB, Peterson LL, Bao W. Association of fried food consumption with all cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2019;364:k5420.

5. Rong S, Snetselaar LG, Xu G, Sun Y, Liu B, Wallace RB, Bao W. Association of skipping breakfast with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2019;73(16):2025-32.

6. Liu B, Xu G, Sun Y, Du Y, Gao R, Snetselaar LG, Santillan MK, Bao W. Association between maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and preterm birth according to maternal age and race or ethnicity: a population-based study. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. 2019;7(9):707-14.

7. Bao W, Xu G, Lu J, Snetselaar LG, Wallace RB. Changes in electronic cigarette use among adults in the United States, 2014-2016. JAMA. 2018;319(19):2039-41.

8. Bao W, Tobias DK, Hu FB, Chavarro JE, Zhang C. Pre-pregnancy potato consumption and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus: prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2016;352:h6898.

Job Opportunities

This research group is actively recruiting postdoctoral research scholars and research fellows. Candidates familiar with epidemiological, statistical, biomarker methods for large population cohorts or randomized controlled trials are preferred.

Email: wbao@ustc.tsg211.com