Zhihong Yang studied medicine in Wuhan in the People’s Republic of China. In 1987 the Swiss Confederation awarded him a federal scholarship for advanced studies. At the University of Basel he served as research assistant in the vascular physiology group (under Professor Thomas F. Lüscher) and later as senior assistant in cardiovascular research at the Institute of Physiology, University of Zurich As a staff member of the cardiovascular research teams in Basel, Bern and Zurich, Zhihong Yang was able to develop his scientific abilities and publish in the best journals of medicine and science. In 1999 he received his license to teach at university (Habilitation) at the University of Zurich in the field of cardiovascular physiology, and in 2001 he was appointed Professor of Physiology at the University of Fribourg.