同济医科大学荣获歌德优胜奖
中美卫生项目主任 何维•根宝 博士
美国加利福尼亚州洛马琳达市
1990年前后有三个组织成立，这些组织后来对同济医科大学产生了有利的和重大的影响。 第一个组织是作为中国卫生部（现称为中国卫生健康委员会--中国卫健委）下属的一个机构--中国健康教育研究所（NHEI）；第二组织是中国吸烟与健康协会（CASH）（后来更名为中国烟草控制协会）；第三个组织是称为“中美卫生项目组织”的一个美国组织，旨在为中国公共卫生与教育机构提供教育合作，并负责接待访美的中国学者。
NHEI官员田本纯博士曾是赴美的访问学者，他邀请中美卫生项目组织中的美国、加拿大控烟专家在北京中国吸烟与健康协会举办的第二届年会上作讲演。随后，每年都邀请他们出席中国各大城市的CASH会议。
1994年，CASH的执行小组（纽世茹博士等人）敦促中美卫生项目组织前往武汉，帮助原同济医科大学减少男学生的吸烟行为，当时女学生是很少有人吸烟的。
中美卫生项目工作组在武汉呆了几天，并与同济医科大学的控烟研究人员进行了数小时的磋商与探讨。美国专家向原同济医科大学的控烟研究人员建议，将同济医科大学建成中国第一所无吸烟医学院校。
我们提出了这样一个高尖的目标让在场的几位同济人都吃了一惊,他们沉默了一会儿，但沉默的气氛终于被热烈的谈话打破了。他们议论了几分钟后，一个充满激情的决定出现了：“好！我们来干。”
同济控烟工作组为实现其艰巨的目标而急切要求提供实际帮助。美方专家承诺提供资金援助、翻译成中文的英语教学视频、照相机和其他器材以及课堂教学用中文资料。美方控烟专家还定期来作讲座、举办讲习班，以及提供激发学生和教职员工配合实现无烟大学目标的科学建议。
在中美卫生项目组织的强烈建议下，德国的一个组织承诺，如果同济医科大学将其男生的吸烟率降低到百分之五以下，则给同济医科大学颁发歌德优胜奖。
德国的这个组织是由德国著名的一名内科医生和化学家弗里德里希·波特海因博士所创立。他给这个组织取名为歌德无吸烟基金会，是为了纪念德国著名诗人、戏剧家、热衷于反对吸烟的积极分子——沃尔夫冈·凡·歌德（Wolfgang van Goethe，1748-1832年）。
从1990年开始，Portheine博士及其组织每年都给世界上任何一所基本达到禁烟状态的医学院颁发著名诗人歌德的银色真人大小半身肖像，让其在该校园里展示一年。
通过同济医科大学的控烟工作人员和学生三年的不懈努力下，他们的目标终于实现了，男医学生的吸烟率约从33％降至不到5％。
Portheine博士在德国医学协会三位同事的陪同下从德国来到北京，向同济医科大学正式颁发了歌德优胜奖。
那年是1997年。在中国中央政府所在地北京，在天安门广场上，具有立法权的人民大会堂里专门安排了歌德优胜奖的正式颁发仪式，突显了中国的原同济医科大学被公认为亚洲第一所无吸烟医学院重大的历史意义。
可喜的是，在向原同济医科大学颁发“歌德优胜奖”荣誉的时刻恰逢国际吸烟与健康大会的召开。数以百计的外国代表出席了此次活动，国际媒体对此也进行了热烈的报道。
与此同时，北京医科大学和上海医科大学学习了同济医科大学努力成为亚洲第一所无吸烟医学院的伟大成功的经验，我们的专家与北京医大和上海医大联系，他们在我们的帮助下也做出了巨大的努力来降低男医学生的吸烟率，随着时间的推移，他们也都成功了。经我们组织的提名下，原北京医科大学和原上海医科大学分别在1998年和1999年也先后获得了歌德优胜奖，也成为中国的第二个和第三个无吸烟医学院。此后，我们中美卫生项目组织陆续记录了中国其他医学院校在成功仿效“三大”医学院作为好榜样的先进事迹。
荣誉和认可必须归功于同济医科大学所有参与控烟的工作人员在三年内如此迅速的成功努力，赢得了大学教职员工和学生的通力合作，使同济医科大学成为中国乃至亚洲的第一所无吸烟医学院。其中的一些著名人物是同济医科大学王祖勤副校长兼控烟协会会长、余松林教授、王增珍教授、崔伊薇教授、杨璞娜女士和向惠云教授。
同济医科大学将永远被铭记为中国在亚洲第一所无烟医学院的崇高领导者。他们树立了多么高尚的榜样。同济，您让中国感到骄傲！
TONGJI MEDICAL UNIVERSITY WINS COVETED GOETHE CHALLENGE TROPHY
by Dr Hervey Gimbel, President, China-USA Health Project
in Loma Linda, California
About the year 1990 three organizations were developed that would eventually favorably and significantly impact Tongji Medical University. First was the National Health Education Institute (NHEI) as a division in Beijing of the Chinese Ministry of Health. Second was the Chinese Association on Smoking and Health (CASH). (The name was later changed to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.) Third was an American organization called the China-USA Health Project, established to provide educational collaboration with public health and instructional agencies in China, and also to host visiting Chinese scholars in America.
American and Canadian experts on smoking control in the China-USA Health Project were invited by a NHEI officer, Dr TIAN Benchun, previously a visiting scholar in America, to make oral presentations at the Second Annual Conference in Beijing of the Chinese Association on Smoking and Health. This was followed by repeated invitations to present annually for many years at the CASH meetings in various cities throughout China.
The executive group (Dr NIU Shiru and others) of CASH in 1994 urged the China-USA Health Project to go to Wuhan and help Tongji Medical University struggling with attempts to reduce smoking among its male medical students. Very few female students smoked.
The China-USA Health Project team spent a few days in Wuhan, and had several hours of exploratory consultations with the Tongji Medical University smoking control staff. The American experts suggested to the Tongji staff that the University work toward making Tongji Medical University the first non-smoking medical school in China.
There was stunned silence for several minutes that such a lofty goal was being proposed. Shortly, however, the silence was broken by a buzz of animated conversation. In a few minutes came the enthusiastic decision: "We will do it."
The Tongji group urgently requested practical assistance with achieving their difficult objective. The Americans promised and produced financial assistance, Chinese translation of English educational movies, camera and other technical equipment, teaching materials in the Chinese language for classroom instructors, periodic lectures and workshops by visiting American tobacco control experts, as well as science-based suggestions on how to motivate students and staff cooperation in reaching the goal of a smoke-free university.
On the strong recommendation of the China-USA Health Project, an organization in Germany promised to Tongji Medical University the coveted Goethe Challenge Trophy if Tongji could reduce its male medical student smoking rate to five percent or less.
The organization was founded by a well-known physician and chemist in Germany named Dr Friedrich Portheine. He called his organization the Goethe Endowment for Non-Smoking, in honor of Wolfgang van Goethe (1748-1832), a renowned poet and dramatist, and an ardent anti-smoking activist.
Each year Dr Portheine and his organization from 1990 on provided a silver life-sized bust of the famous poet to be housed for one year on the campus of a medical school anywhere in the world achieving a basically non-smoking status.
With hearty and combined efforts Tongji Medical University staff and students plunged into their ambitious project. Within three years their goal was reached, with the smoking rate among male medical students reduced from about thirty-three percent to less than five percent.
Dr Portheine came from Germany to Beijing, accompanied by three of his colleagues from the German Medical Association, to make the formal presentation of the Goethe Challenge Trophy to Tongji Medical University.
The year was 1997. The great significance of China being recognized as having the first non-smoking medical school in Asia, was accentuated by arranging for the formal presentation of the Goethe Challenge Trophy in the Great Hall of the People, the Chinese central government seat of legislative authority adjacent to Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
The honorable presentation to Tongji Medical University of the Goethe Challenge Trophy coincided with an international conference on smoking and health. Hundreds of foreign delegate attendees witnessed the event, and the occasion received widespread international press.
In the meantime, the number one and number two medical schools in China-Beijing Medical University and Shanghai Medical University-learned of the ambitious and successful project of Tongji Medical University to become the first non-smoking medical school in China. The China-USA Health Project made contact with the schools in Beijing and Shanghai, and in a short time they too, with our help, were engaged in a strenuous effort to reduce smoking among their male medical students. As time went on, and their smoking control efforts were being successful, our organization successfully nominated both medical schools to also receive the Goethe Challenge Trophy. Shanghai Medical University received the honor in 1998, and Beijing Medical University in 1999. We have record of other medical schools in China having since successfully followed the good example of "The Big Three" medical schools.
Honor and recognition must go to the Tongji Medical University staff for their diligent and successful efforts in so quickly, within three years, winning the cooperation of university staff and students to put Tongji Medical University on the map as the first smoking-free medical school in China, in fact, in Asia. Some of these notable individuals are Vice-President of Tongji Medical University Zuqin WANG and President of its Smoking Control Association, Professor Songlin YU, Professor Zhengzhen WANG, Professor Yiwei CUI，Mrs Puna YANG, and Professor Huiyun XIANG.
Tongji Medical University will always be remembered as the exalted leader in becoming the first smoking-free medical school in China, in Asia. What a noble example they have set. Tongji, you have made China proud.