During Yao Tai's tenure as the head of the Department of Physiology of Shanghai Medical University, the department was awarded the titles of Shanghai Model Worker Collective (1985) and National Advanced Collective of Education System (1986), and he himself was awarded the Shanghai Model Worker (1987) and won the National May 1st Labor Medal. 1997 10 In June, the University of Gothenburg in Sweden awarded Yao Tai an honorary doctorate.