Chen Ding-shinn, former dean of the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University, has devoted his life to combating Taiwan's public enemy number one, hepatitis B, with astounding success. This summer he is passing the torch to his successor. (Hsueh Chi-kuang)

Hepatitis is Taiwan's "na- tional disease." Currently, 16% of Taiwan's population carries hepatitis B, the highest rate in the world. Nevertheless, the superb results of Taiwan's hepatitis B prevention efforts have set a historical precedent in the medical and public health fields.

In the 1960s, little was known in Taiwan about this disease, but now Taiwan has become a model for the world, having reduced the number of hepatitis B carriers by 500,000 and halted the curse of mother-to-child infection.

A key figure in this effort, the one who has made the greatest contribution, is Professor Chen Ding-shinn of National Taiwan University's Hepatitis Research Center, an authority on digestive medicine who is set to step down as dean of NTU's College of Medicine in August 2007.

"This is a pomelo tree and that's a Taiwan flamegold," says the 64-year-old Chen as he eagerly introduces the trees on the old college grounds, brimming with pride as if they were his own. Some of the older trees were his companions throughout his journey from lowly student to lofty deanship at the College of Medicine. Chen himself is like an old tree that has taken root here: he's a native born and bred medical scientist. He has been dubbed the Father of Hepatitis, yet despite having undertaken two short-term training sessions abroad, he has no formal degrees from overseas, not even a master's.

With his dogged determination to make the right contributions to Taiwan at the right time, Chen has devoted his mental energies to the prevention of hepatitis B, a national disgrace that has done serious harm in Taiwan. And as a consequence he has gained a worldwide reputation.

Chen's war against hepatitis didn't start by accident. When he was in sixth grade, he had to recuperate at home for a month after a bout with acute hepatitis A. Then when he was a senior at the NTU College of Medicine, his father contracted liver cancer and died a quick and untimely death. Having grappled twice with the specter of disease, the first time in ignorance and the second time at a loss what to do, Chen vowed to research liver disease in order to subdue this dreaded ailment.

Chen chose the path of research after completing his residency. His mentor was Professor Sung Jui-lou, then NTU's authority on liver disease, and thus began Chen's development in the field of liver disease research.