Nanjing Medical University (NMU) is a national Double First Class construction university, jointly founded by the Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, and the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government. It is one of the earliest institutions in China to offer educational courses in public health and preventive medicine. In 1940, the institute established a Teaching and Research Office of Public Health, and began to enroll undergraduate students in the public health program in 1953. The Department of Preventive Medicine was established in 1988, and the department was renamed the School of Public Health (SPH) in 1995. The discipline of Public Health and Preventive Medicine was rated A+ in the National First-level Discipline Comprehensive Assessment by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Additionally, the Discipline has been ranked the first-place in the Shanghai Ranking’s Best Chinese Subjects Ranking for five consecutive years. In 2022, the discipline was selected as a key discipline in the national “Double First Class” program. The school was also selected as one of the national high-level schools of public health, and has been honored with the National May 1st Labor Medal and the “Advanced Collective of Jiangsu Provincial Education System”. The school party committee was selected as a benchmark unit for party building work in the province.

The school has 12 departments, including the Department of Epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics, Department of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, Department of Toxicology, Department of Hygienic Analysis and Detection, Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Department of Health Information, Department of Health Management, Department of Microbiology and Infection, and Department of Mental Health; 7 research centers, including the Experimental Teaching Center of Preventive Medicine, the Public Health Teaching Research Center, the China National Birth Cohort Research Center, the China International Cooperation Center for Environment and Human Health, the Center for Global Health, the Hygienic Analysis and Detection Center, and the Public Health Emergency Consultation and Research Center and 2 research collaboration and resource sharing platform.

The school has a total of 245 faculty and staff members, including 42 full professors, 53 associate professors, 39 doctoral supervisors, and 41 master supervisors. The school has 2 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineeringand the Chinese Academy of Sciences (including workstations), 6 experts who receive the special allowance of the State Council, 2 National Excellent Teachers, 2 scholars enrolled in the national New Century Hundred, Thousand and Ten-Thousand Talents Project, 2 scholars enrolled in New Century Talent-supporting Project of the MOE, 6 scholars funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) for Distinguished Young Scholars, 8 scholars funded by NSFC for Excellent Young Scholars, l scholar enrolled in Young and Middle-aged Leading Talents in Sci-tech Innovation Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and 22 other national high-level talents. The school also has l scholar awarded with the National Excellent Postdoctoral Fellow, l scholar awarded with National Excellent 100 Doctoral Dissertations, 15 Distinguished Professors of Jiangsu Province, 35 scholars enrolled as candidates of Jiangsu 333 program (2 of which enrolled in Level-One), 4 scholars honored as experts with outstanding contributions for Jiangsu Province, 12 scholars funded by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province for Distinguished Young Scholars and 4 scholars funded by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province for Excellent Young Scholars, 1 national advanced worker, 1 Jiangsu Top Ten Young Science and Technology Star, 1 recipient of the Jiangsu Youth May Fourth Medal, and 2 Excellent Educational Workers in Jiangsu Province. The school also has 20 national and provincial-level outstanding teaching teams, including national-level teaching teams, Huang Danian-style teacher teams in national universities, NSFC innovative research groups, Ideological and Political Education Teaching Team of the Ministry of Education, MOE innovative teams, and excellent science and technology innovation teams in Jiangsu Province.

The school has been approved as the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Preventive Medicine, the national first-class professional construction point and a high-level applied public health talent innovative training project. The SPH has won the first prize of the National Teaching Achievement and the first prize of the National Excellent Textbooks. Some courses have been selected as the first-batch National First-class Courses, National Excellent Resource-sharing Courses and National Excellent Online Open Courses, Ideological and Political Demonstration Projects of the Ministry of Education, and a National First-class Virtual Experimental Teaching course. The School takes the lead in editing the first digital textbook for medical students, initiating the PBL teaching in public health, and organized the first National Competition of Comprehensive Public Health Skills for College Students. In recent years, the school has won numerous awards in various disciplines, especially in the “Challenge Cup”, China College Students' Entrepreneurship Competition, and the National Medical Skills Competition for College Students.

The school offers doctoral programs in Public Health and Preventive Medicine, the professional master’s programs in Public Health (MPH) and postdoctoral research stations. The school has four Key disciplines, including Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health (National Key Discipline), Public Health and Preventive Medicine (Jiangsu Outstanding Disciplines), Toxicology (Jiangsu Key Discipline) and  Epidemiology and Health Statistics (Jiangsu Key Discipline). The Pharmacology and Toxicology disciplines have entered the top 0.05‰ in the ESI global ranking. The school has also established a number of high-level innovative research platforms,  including the National Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine and Offspring Health, the National Innovation Platform for the Integration of Industry and Education in Vaccine, the China International Cooperation Center for Environment and Human Health, the MOE Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology, the Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Personalized Medicine Co-sponsored by Ministry of Education and Jiangsu Provincial Government, and the Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers. The school's research on major chronic diseases and reproductive health has been recognized with two second-place awards from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In the past five years, the SPH has been granted 300 longitudinal projects with a total funding of nearly 300 million RMB.

The school offers three national first-class undergraduate programs in  Preventive Medicine, Hygienic Analysis and Detection, and Biostatistics. The school also offers graduate programs in all sub-disciplines of public health and preventive medicine. There are over 2160 students enrolled in the school, including 966 undergraduates, 1034 full-time graduates, 28 international academic graduate candidates, 26 international MPH students and 114 part-time MPH students. The school has formed a multi-disciplinary, multi-level talent training system with preventive medicine as the core and relevant disciplines developing in a coordinated manner.

The school has conducted extensive international cooperation and academic exchanges, and has established bilateral cooperation with universities and research institutes in countries and regions such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Pakistan. The school has initiated the establishment of the International Medical Education Alliance, which promotes the innovation of international public health talent training models. Relying on China International Cooperation Center for Environment and Human Health and Center for Global Health of Nanjing Medical University, the school has led the establishment of the Asian Consortium for Arsenic and Health Research (ACAHR) and “the Belt and Road” Health Promotion Consortium (BRHPC). The school has also established overseas bases and global health centers in Pakistan and Nepal.

Based on domestic and international perspectives, serving national strategies, and always holding the greatness of the country in mind..While the school has made great strides in teaching and research, it has also engaged in extensive scientific and technological services. This has formed a unique advantage of strong basic science integration and coordinated development of production, education and research.