To celebrate his achievements, Google dedicated its Doodle to Dr Wu on the doctor's 142nd birthday. Photo credit: Courtesy of Dr Shan Woo Liu and Ling Woo Liu Dr Wu (pic), who is a Penangite, went on to become the first student of Chinese descent to earn his MD from Cambridge University, according to Google in its tribute. Following his doctoral studies, he accepted a position as the vice-director for China's Imperial Army Medical College in 1908. When an unknown epidemic afflicted north-western China in 1920, the Chinese government appointed Dr Wu to investigate the disease, which he identified as the highly contagious pneumonic plague that spread from human to human through respiratory transmission, said Google.