Consul General of China in New York Zhang Qiyue with SUNY Optometry’s David Heath, OD.
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NEW YORK—David A. Heath, OD, president, SUNY College of Optometry was honored at a gala event at the Consulate General of China in New York earlier this month, as one of 10 of the region’s past recipients of major Chinese honors.

In 2010, Dr. Heath received the Friendship Award in Beijing from China’s Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang. The award is China’s highest honor for foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the nation’s economic and social progress. Dr. Heath received the honor for his decades of experience working closely with Wenzhou Medical University and for his work helping to expand access to eyecare across China.

The recent N.Y. gala also honored the region’s recipients of the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award which was established in 1994 to recognize significant contributions to the areas of science and technology in China.

Zhang Qiyue, the Consul General of China in New York, welcomed the attendees to the event and remarks were given by two professors of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health: Dr. Lee Goldman, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and Dr. Walter Ian Lipkin, the John Snow Professor of epidemiology. This was the first time that China’s Consulate General in New York had gathered a group of major foreign honoree recipients together at one event.