March 10 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating epidemiologist Dr. Wu Lien-teh who invented surgical face coverings with a new Doodle on what would have been his 142nd birthday.
Wu was born in modern-day Malaysia on this day in 1879. He became the first student of Chinese descent to earn an MD from Cambridge University and became the vice director for China's Imperial Army Medical College in 1908.
Wu was appointed to investigate an unknown disease that was spreading in north-western China in 1910. He identified it as the highly contagious Pneumonic plague and designed and produced a special surgical mask to combat the disease.
The surgical mask was designed with cotton and gauze with several layers of cloth to filter inhalations. Wu advised others to wear his mask and worked with government officials to set restrictions in place. The pandemic ended by April 1911.
Wu founded the Chinese Medical Association, a non-government medical organization in 1935. He was also the first Malaysian and first person of Chinese descent to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work to control the Pneumonic plague.
Google's homepage features artwork of Wu making a surgical mask, which is passed to other doctors to wear.
Wu's great-granddaughters Dr. Shan Woo Liu and Ling Woo Liu partnered with Google on the Doodle.
