It’s a great opportunity for me to first express my sincere appreciation for your trust and support in electing me for another term of AAFMUA President. With your enthusiastic support and unremitting efforts in the past year AAFMUA had another fruitful year of serving our alumni and making contributions to our alma mater. It is my great pleasure here to present to you the major activities of AAFMUA in the past year.
Scientific and clinical exchanges between FJMU and AAFMUA
Last year, invited by FJMU, twelve guest professors of FJMU including two non-alumni guest professors (Drs. Ren-Jiang Lin and Yangxin Fu) visited FJMU. In April, Drs. Lurong Zhang (Professor, University of Rochester), Shi-du Yan (Associate Professor, Columbia University), Zao-Dung Ling (Associate Professor, Rush University), Ruoqing Huang (Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai Medical School/NYU), De-fu Zeng (Assistant Professor, Beckman Institute at City of Hope National Medical Center) and Ren-Jiang Lin (Professor, Beckman Institute at City of Hope National Medical Center) attended a scientific Symposium, “Biomedical Science Symposium, 2005” in FJMU and presented their research work. Also in April, Drs Lieping Chen (Professor of Johns Hopkins University), Yangxin Fu (Professor, University of Chicago), and Ke Zhang (Associate Professor, UCLA) attended a special Immunology Symposium in FJMU. More recently, Drs Ke-he Ruan (Associate Professor, University of Texas) and Ken Chen (Director of transgenic mouse facility, Albert Einstein Medical College) and Dr. Zhenmin Lei (Associate Professor, University of Louisville) visited FJMU to advise about research work in their cooperating labs. Dr. De-fu Zeng, Ren-Jiang Lin and Ke-he Ruan also invited postdoctoral fellows to work in their labs after their visits to FJMU. The guest professors also attended several meetings with the University leaders, giving their constructive suggestions on research and medical education in FJMU.
In addition to the above activities, at least thirteen alumni also visited the affiliated hospitals and research institutes of FJMU. Drs. Ruoqing Huang, Zao-dung Lin, De-fu Zeng, Ren-jiang Lin, Yangxin Fu, Xian Chen (Assistant Professor and Attending physician, University of Michigan), Lin Xu (Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatrics, Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita), Qing Lin (Assistant Professor, University of Texas Galveston), Fangming Lin (Assistant Professor and Attending pediatrician, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas), Jinxing Yu (Assistant Professor of Radiology and Director of Oncology for Radiology, Virginia Commonwealth University); Lizhen He (Senior Research Scientist, Medarex Inc, NJ), and Xinjian Lin (Assistant Research Scientist, UCSD) gave clinical or research seminars there and exchanged their research and clinical experience with their peers. Visiting the alma mater has become an excellent opportunity to promote clinical and academic exchanges.
With the great efforts of our alumni and guest professors who financially sponsor postdoctoral fellows or PhD students from FJMU, 16 alumni received their research training in the States. They are Fang Fang (Dr. Shidu Yan’s lab, Columbia University); Chun Wang (Dr. Shifang Yan’s Lab, Columbia University); Chao Hui and Yuangui Zhu (Dr. Zao-dung Lin’s Lab, Rush University), Xuwei Yang (Dr. Ke Zhang’s Lab, UCLA), Liangdi Xie (Dr. Kehe Ruan’s Lab, Univ.of Texas); Fangping Yan and Jin Lin (Dr. Zhenmin Lei’s Lab, Univ. of Louisville. Dr. Lei also sponsored Yonglin Gao to be trained in a research lab in his University); Gangxiong Huang, Nainong Li and Ying Chen (Dr. Defu Zeng’s Lab, City of Hope National Medical Center), Gongbiao Lin (Dr. Ren-jiang Lin’s lab, City of Hope National Medical Center); Lu Lu (Dr. Delong Liu’s Lab, New York Medical College), Ying Su and Wei Wang (Dr. Lurong Zhang’s Lab, Rochester University), and Chuan Wang (Dr. Jizhen Lin’s lab, University of Minnesota). Dr. Lin also has research collaboration with research laboratory in the affiliated Union Hospital. Some of these exchange scholars have completed their training and returned to FJMU and become important research forces in FJMU. Most of them are currently continuing their research or thesis work in the labs of our alumni. It should be pointed out that many of these sponsoring professors have been long time supporters of FJMU, some of them have trained more than 5 researchers for FJMU in the past few years. We highly appreciate their contributions to FJMU and strongly believe that these academic exchanges will significantly benefit both FJMU and research institutes in U.S.A.
Recommendation of Guest Professors to FJMU
The recommendation of highly qualified professionals to FJMU is another way to help our alma mater. The Recommendation Committee for Guest Professor at FJMU led by Drs. Lieping Chen, Tongchuan Li and Zhengbo Huang had recommended 2 alumni, Drs. Shifang Yan (Assistant Professor, Columbia University) and Gongyu Yang (Attending Radiologist and Assistant Professor, University of Illinois), as well as non-alumna, Dr. Yun Yen (Professor of Medical Oncology and Graduate School at City of Hope National Medical Center), to FJMU and they were appointed as Guest Professors. AAFMUA will recommend new candidates to FJMU soon according to The Regulation for FMU Guest Professor Appointment (see www.fjmufriends.com). We are very happy that in the past 4 years AAFMUA has recommended 4 non-alumni to FJMU and they are appointed as Guest Professors. These non-alumni Guest Professors are all outstanding scientists in different research fields and willing to help FJMU. Dr. Delong Liu, Associate Professor and Attending Physician at New York Medical College accepted and financially supported a visiting scholar, Dr. Xudong Ma, a FJMU alumna to work in his lab and participated in clinical rounds. Dr. Liu has also trained a PhD candidate, Dr. Lu Lu from Hematology Institute of Union Hospital of FJMU, who is going to return to FJMU for her PhD thesis defense. Dr. Yangxin Fu, Professor of University of Chicago, gave research seminars at FJMU as well as at the Second Affiliated Hospital last year. Dr. Ren-Jang Lin attended the Research Symposium at FJMU and is currently training a postdoctoral fellow from FJMU. We strongly believe that the non-alumni Guest Professors are another important source for promoting the academic and clinical development in FJMU and we will continue to recommend high quality non-alumni to FJMU for guest professor appointments. We will highly appreciate the nomination of non-alumni candidates by our alumni in supporting our great mission.
Introduction of new outstanding Alumni
There are many outstanding alumni in the United States who are experts in clinical medicine and the related research fields. Last year we were very proud to introduce 4 outstanding alumni on our website (www.fjmufriends.com). Thanks to the excellent job done by our Vice President, Dr. Minggui Pan, the fourth issue of “Outstanding Alumni” introduced three outstanding physicians in different Medical fields. Dr. Zhenbo Huang, Attending Physician of New York Hospital of Queens and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College, is an expert on Geriatrics and director of geriatric fellowship program. Dr. Zhenbo Huang has been a long time supporter of AAFMUA and has -significantly contributed to our organization; Dr. Yiwu Huang, Attending Physician at Maimonides Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is an outstanding hematologist and oncologist, and a respected research investigator and medical educator; Dr. Taosheng Huang, Attending Physician and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of California Irvine, is the director for the Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic and the director for the MitoMed Molecular Diagnostic laboratory. Dr. Taosheng Huang is a very accomplished and well-known researcher and physician in pediatric genetics. Dr. Jizhen Lin, Assistant Professor of University of Minnesota, is an outstanding researcher on otolaryngology and well published in his research field. He has been listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare and Who’s Who in American and Who’s Who in the World. AAFMUA is very proud of these alumni and will continue to introduce the outstanding alumni to our alumni community as well as to the world.
Alumni Services
One of the important missions of AAFMUA is to serve our alumni. Dr. Yi-Shun Lin, Vice President and webmaster has been working very hard to edit news and events for the web (www.fjmufriends.com). There is no doubt that keeping the website well-running is extremely time consuming and requires expertise. AAFMUA has been highly appreciative of all his efforts. AAFMUA is also very fortunate to have Dr. Yiqun Bao to join us and serve as Associate Director of Information Services, helping us to provide information to our alumni. With their enthusiastic support and frequently updated web site more and more FJMU alumni, either in U.S.A. or abroad, get to know our organization and the interesting information.
In order to keep our alumni connected AAFMUA frequently updates the Alumni Directory. The updated directory brings our alumni more closely together. Due to the family moves or job change some of the information in the directory has become outdated. AAFMUA will continue its efforts as we did in the past to keep our directory updated. However, we would like to ask our alumni who have changed their email addresses and/or phone numbers to email us your new contact information so that AAFMUA can deliver the message to you and so that your friends can reach you with more convenience.
Last year AAFMUA invited a delegation led by President Yangyi Chen from FJMU to USA. We are very grateful for wonderful job done by Drs. Yiwu Huang, Ke Zhang, De-fu Zeng, Yiwu Huang and Wei Lin to make three welcome parties in New York, Los Angles and Washington DC very successful. My special thanks also go to Drs. Zaodung Ling and Ling Zheng for their generous contribution and well-organized welcome parties for Dr. Xiaochun Chen, Vice President of FJMU. Their help made Dr. Xiaochun Chen’s visit to the States very fruitful. These parties also provided an excellent opportunity for the alumni reunion.
In addition to holiday greetings, AAFMUA also sent alumni some interesting emails including health information and beautiful and enjoyable images provided by Drs. Yiqun Bao and Ronglan Zheng. AAFMUA encourages our alumni to share any interesting and beneficial information, articles, images, etc. We will highly appreciate your contribution. To improve our alumni service Dr. Minggui Pan, Executive Vice President of AAFMUA, is currently editing the newsletter of AAFMUA. It is our sincere hope that with this newsletter AAFMUA will be able to provide our alumni more interesting and useful information, and to share our experience and help each other. We are looking forward to your contribution to this publication.
Other AAFMUA activities
Since the beginning of our organization, our Treasurer, Dr. Ling Zheng has been in charge of the finance management of AAFMUA, and has done an excellent job in bookkeeping. Thanks to Dr. Ling Zheng’s endless effort, AAFMUA had successfully passed the reviewing process for tax-exempt status during the 5-year advance ruling period by IRS, and has been classified as a public charity exempt from federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the code, which is very important to us since all financial support to AAFMUA will be tax-deductible. In addition to financial management, Dr. Ling Zheng has been actively helping in organizing AAFMUA activities in New York City.
Our Honorary President, Dr. Tongchuan Li has spent the tremendous amount of time and energy in drafting the Bylaws of the Professor Shen Yun-Ying Foundation (the Foundation) which will help the outstanding students with financial hardship in FJMU. Dr. Li has been recently appointed as Director of the Foundation. He and other officers of the Foundation, Drs. Zaodung Ling, Catherine (Jialing) Li, Yishun Lin as well as Ling Zheng will work together to initiate this very important project soon. We are hoping that the first scholarships will be awarded to the candidate selected by FJMU and approved by the Foundation in the fall of 2006. Currently we have more than $6000 donated by Late Dr. Yunying Shen and her family members. We are looking forward to everyone’s support for this great and very meaningful project, since this is a wonderful way to express our appreciation and a sincere feedback to our alma mater.
Owing to the superb job done by Yishun Lin and Ken Chen, AAFMUA had successfully conducted the election for the fourth term president through a democratic process. Thanks to the trust and support from our alumni and the leadership, I have been able to organize a new leadership team to fulfill our missions. In order to improve our alumni service AAFMUA is very fortunate to welcome Dr. Ronglan Zhen, a strong long-time AAFMUA supporter, to our leadership. She will be in charge of alumni services. I am also very grateful that Dr. Minggui Pan has taken the executive Vice President position to help me in organizing AAFMUA function.
Before concluding our annual report, I would like to once again thank our alumni and leadership for all their efforts. It goes without saying that the great success achieved by AAFMUA will be impossible without the continuous support by our alumni. I also would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to those alumni whose name have not been mentioned in the report but who have been actively participating in a variety of activities and contributing their precious time and money to support the organization. We warmly welcome all our members’ active participation in the AAFMUA activities as well as your comments and suggestions to improve our work. Best of all, we work as a team, a strong, united and efficient team, for our great missions.
Ruoqing Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
AAFMUA President