Dr. David Chi

Dr. David S. Chi

Years of Service: 1980-

David S. Chi was born in Taichung, Taiwan. He received his B.S. degree from the National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan. He subsequently pursued graduate education at Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas followed by a M.A. degree and a PhD in 1977 from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston, Texas. In the same year, he moved to the Department of Pathology at New York University and worked with Dr. Jeanette Throrbecke where he underwent advanced training in cellular immunology and was promoted to Research Assistant Professor. In 1980, David Chi accepted a position as an Associate Professor and set up the Clinical Immunology Laboratory in the Department of Medicine at East Tennessee State University and the James H. Quillen College of Medicine. In 1981, he was quickly promoted to his current position as Chief of the Division of Biomedical Research and in 1985 he received tenure. In 1986 he was promoted to Full Professor in Medicine and served as an adjunct faculty member in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology.

Dr. Chi is recognized as a great teacher and a warm and friendly mentor. He has always been ready to lend a helping hand in clinical research projects and under his guidance and leadership, many clinical fellowships and research programs acquired firm ground. He has worked not only with faculty members in Immunology but also with clinicians from diverse divisions within medicine, including infectious diseases, cardiology, and gastroenterology. He has chaired two graduate thesis dissertation committees and has served as a member on well over a dozen others. More impressively, he has worked with over 30 students (medical, undergraduate, high school) in the last 2 decades and has developed a wonderful working relationship with the McNair program. The prolific research activity is demonstrated by the voluminous numbers of publications (96), book chapters (14) and abstracts/proceedings at national/international meetings (263).

Dr. Chi's tenure at ETSU College of Medicine has been marked by his dedicated service to the department and university alike. He has served on the Faculty Senate, Institutional Review Board, Scholarship Advisory Committee, Admissions Committee, and the Research Development Committee, to name a few. He has also held administrative positions in many national organizations including Sigma Xi and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. This service has resulted in numerous awards and recognitions including the Deans Excellence Award for Teaching in 1992 and Students' Teaching Recognition Award in 1995, 1996 and 1997. He has hosted over 10 visiting professors from international universities and is still warmly remembered by all of them. The one abiding quality of Dr. David Chi has been his genuine warmth, humility and readiness to help. This has earned him the friendship of physicians, staff, students, residents and research fellows. He is truly loved and respected as a wonderful human being, an inspiring colleague and a passionate mentor.