Bom in Ningbo in China's Zhejiang Province, in 1924, Professor Xie Zhufan is a 1946 graduate of the Bei- jing University Medical College. In 1956 he completed the first ever special training course for teachers in acupunc- ture held by the Ministry of Public Health. For more than forty years he has been working in the First Teaching Hospital of the Beijing Medical Univer- sity (formerly the Beijing Medical Col- lege), and since the 1950s has been engaged in clinical and experimental studies on the integration of traditional Chinese medicine with Western medi- cine, concentrating for the most part on intemal medicine. He has practised and taught both modem Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine and has conducted several training courses on traditional Chinese medicine both at home and abroad. A three-time ap- pointee as WHO consultant on tradi- tional medicine in 1985, 1986 and 1990, he has worked in the WHO Regional Office for the WesternPacific. Owing to his particular professional ex- perience, he knows well the difficulties that most Occidentals encounter when they are leaming traditional Chinese medicine. He has published a great variety of scientific papers and books, among which his Dictionary of Tradi- tional Medlclne has been most particu- larly well received by his readers. At present he holds the following profes- sional positions: Professor of Medicine, Director of the Institute for the Integra- tion of Traditional and Modem Med- icine, Beijing Medical University; Chairman of the Committee of Intema- tional Academic Exchange, Chinese As- sociation for thc Integration of Trad- itional and Westem Medicine; and Vice-Chairman, Beijing Association for the Integration of Traditional and Westem Medicine. Bom in China's Fujian Province, in July 1930, Professor Liao Jiazhen graduated from the Shanxi Medical College in 1955 and completed the Traditional Chinese Medicine Course conducted by the Ministry of Public Health, in 1958. For more than thirty years he has been engaged in practice, teaching and research related to the in- tegration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. His research has been focussed on clinical and pharma- cological studies on the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease using modem scientific methodology to build on the basis of the traditional theory of correlation between qi and blood. He has published more than 90 academic papers, and has nine times been awarded prizes for his scientific achievements. His present posts are Professor of Internal Medicine, Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medi- cine; Vice-Chairman, Chinese Associa- tion for the Integration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine; Mem- ber of the Appraisal Group on the In- tegration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Committee of Aca- demic Degrees, the State Council of the People's Republic of China; Depu- ty Editor-in-Chief, The Pharmacologi- cal and Clinical Journal of Chinese Medicine; and Member of the Editorial Board of The Chinese Journal of Inte- grated Traditlonal and Western Medi- clne.