It has been my second year as president of AAFMUA. As this term of AAFMUA leadership is approaching the end, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all FJMU alumni in the United States for your continued support in the past year. Your efforts and contributions are the sources for our organizational success. Here I want to highlight our major activities in 2003 and present you an annual report of AAFMUA.
1.SARS affected activities of AAFMUA in 2003.
Generally speaking, we were less active in 2003 than the previous year, due to an unusual situation of SARS in China and the United States as well. Between March and July, unnecessary international trips to and from many Asian countries, particularly China were forced to cancel because of concern of SARS contagion. Most people traveled in Asia and then returned to the U.S. were asked to be quarantined for 10 days at home. This policy led to cancellation of many travel plans of our alumni. Secondly, many local alumni gatherings and parties were discouraged due to the similar concern.
2. Scientific exchanges between AAFMUA and FJMU.
·With the help of AAFMUA, Dr. Biao WANG, Director of Plastic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of FJMU, came to Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston for visit and advanced study. AAFMUA and its members also helped the following doctors come from China to the United States for scientific exchanges programs: Liqun ZHANG, Xudong MA.
·Prof. He Li of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science sponsored and trained 2 scientists from our home university (Aiqin Chen from Department of Physiology, and Dr. Longkun Zhu, Chairman of Dept. of Physiology, FJMU) in 2003.
·Prof. Lieping Chen of Mayo Clinic sponsors and trains 1 postdoctoral (Wei Lin from Department of Cell Biology, FJMU) in his research Lab.
·Prof. Shidu Yan of Columbia University sponsors and trains 5 postdoctorals from China (Jianmin Huang, Chaodong Wang, Lin Chang, Ning Wang, Huiping Zhang) in her research Lab.
·Prof. Zhenmin Lei sponsors and trains 2 postdoctorals (Fangping Yuan and Dexin Lin, both from FJMU) in his research Lab. at the University of Kentucky.
·Prof. Zao-Dung Ling (Rush University, Chicago) trains 2 Ph.D. students (Conglong Lin and Chaohui Zhao) and 1 instructor (Yuangui Zhu) from FJMU.
·Prof. Kehe Ruan (University of Texas Medical School at Houston) sponsors and trains a visiting postdoctoral (Gangxiong Huang) from the Dept. of Pathology, FJMU.
·Dr. Zengqi Li, a postdoctoral fellow from FJMU was trained in Dr. Defu Zeng’s group at Stanford University School of Medicine and he already went back to FJMU and set up a heart-transplantation program in the first affiliated Hospital.
·Dr. Jing Wang of Physiology Dept. of FJMU worked as a postdoc at Dr. Qing Lin’s Lab.
·Drs. Ruoqing Huang and Defu Zeng were trying to help FJMU setting up an Immune Tolerance Center or Bone Marrow and Organ Transplantation.
·FJMU contacted AAFMUA seeking opinions about a potential collaboration between FJMU and Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC). After discussions and careful consideration, all alumni involved in the evaluation thought that was not appropriate for the proposed collaboration since chiropractic is not physical medicine or rehabilitation at all. They believe that such collaboration will not improve the reputation of FJMU, rather it may cause some negative consequence. Therefore, AAFMUA made an official response to FJMU with frank comments of the alumni on this issue.
·In the past year, there were at least 6 of our alumni who visited FJMU or presented scientific seminars at the university. They are Drs. Ruoqing Huang, Xian Chen, Jinxing Yu, Yangheng Fu, Qing Lin and Tongchuan Li.
3. Recommended 3 guest professors to FJMU and all appointed.
AAFMUA each year recommends highly qualified candidates to FJMU for appointment of guest professors in different fields, based on their scientific achievements. In 2003, we recommended Drs. Yangxin Fu, Fangming Lin, and Qunrui Ye to our home university and they were all appointed with the title of Guest Professor of FJMU. It is hoped that they will make remarkable contributions to the scientific research and educational development of FJMU in the years to come.
4. Community service performed by AAFMUA alumni
·Dr. Renzhi Zhou was invited three times by Chinese Branch at Voice of American (VOA) to give live radio/TV broadcasting talk and discussion on medical topics of SARS (3/29/2003), cardiovascular diseases (7/19/2003) and hypertension (11/1/2003). People from all over China including Hongkong and Taiwan often watch this programs and actively participate in live discussion of health issues.
·Dr. Yiwu Huang had a BBC interview in June 2003: Topic: New directions of Cancer treatment
·Dr. Yiwu Huang, in Aug. and Oct. of 2003, participated in cancer patient support group meeting sponsored by American Cancer Society Chinease Chapter at NYC, talked about common cancers and their treatment and also answered patients’ questions.
·Dr. Yiwu Huang, in Aug. of 2003 had a radio (AM14801) talk “cancer expert interview” on the prevention and treatment of colon cancer.
·Drs. Wen Lin and Yiwu Huang published a book entitled “Chemotherapy Guide for Cancer Patients” 12/2003. Open link for detail: <http://www1.chinesenewsnet.com/MainNews/SocDigest/Health/2004_1_14_14_32_18_331.html>
·Dr. Wen Lin (Pen-name: SHI YU) serves as President of an overseas Chinese literature organization – Wenxinshe (<http://www.wenxinshe.org/>) and she has published many articles and books in Chinese
5. Tried to Invite FJMU delegation visiting U.S. universities and other institutions – without success. Invited by AAFMUA as well as Profs. Kunping Lu (Harvard Medical School), Shidu Yan, (Columbia University), Lurong Zhang (Georgetown University), Ke Zhang (UCLA) and Defu Zeng (City of Hope Medical Center), a delegation from Fujian Medical University (FJMU) led by Vice President Jianyin Lin, planned to visit the United States in September of 2003. Unfortunately, their visa applications were turned down by the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, probably due to the document preparation problem. Support and efforts of those alumni professors during the process are highly appreciated.
6. AAFMUA website, directory and e-mail database updates
With significant contributions made by Dr. Yishun Lin, Vice President of AAFMUA and webmaster of our homepage, AAFMUA website provides a great information channel to all our alumni in the U.S. as well as to our peers back in China. All major events (such as the pass away of our beloved Prof. Yunyin Shen and former FJMU president PU Jingquan) and AAFMUA activities (such as FJMU Class 1983 reunion in Las Vegas and Fuzhou) were updated timely. Organization structure, new member application, Guest Professor Corner, Alumni Gardens, Special Report and so on are all well organized and presented on the website. So far it received more than 35,000 visits. Dr. Yiwu Huang (VP of AAFMUA) and Dr. Ken Chen are the main contributors for our directory and e-mail database updates. They sent out a newly updated AAFMUA directory to all members in January 2004. Their nice work keeps our communication channel open and effective.
7. Regional alumni activities
New York City: In Feb., 2003, many alumni from Eastern states held a Chinese New Year party in Flushing, NY, attended also included 6 visiting medical experts from Fujian Province. San Francisco: Alumni around Stanford University gathered together and threw a party to celebrate Dr. ZENG Defu’s promotion to Assistant Professor in Feb. In March, they had a warm welcome party for Drs. CHEN Bifen and YIN Fengzhi’s visit. Dr. CHEN is a professor of Pathology of FJMU. Dr. YIN is a former president and a professor of Surgery of FJMU. In November, the alumni held a welcome party for Dr. JIANG Yiping’s visit. Dr. JIANG currently serves as Chairman and professor
of Department of Cell Biology and Genetics in FJMU. In October of 2003, I was very happy to participate in the Southern California alumni gathering that was held at Dr. Lan Chen’s home in San Diego. More than 10 alumni in the area attended the party. Alumni in the other areas also held their regional parties of different sizes, to promote
their communication and friendship to each other.
8. Special events
Prof. Yunying Shen, Honorary President of AAFMUA, passed away in California in June of 2003. Dr. Minggui Pan, on behalf of AAFMUA, delivered a speech at the funeral service of Prof. Shen. Many of our alumni also donated money ($3000 total) to her family to express their love to the late professor. However, Dr. Catherine Li, daughter of Prof. Shen, gave the money back to AAFMUA; in addition, the family contributed to AAFMUA another $3000 which includes $1500 from Prof. Shen herself according to her will. AAFMUA proposes to set up a memorial foundation of
Professor Shen in the near future.
At the near-end of my term as the president of AAFMUA, I sincerely thank many of our alumni who have been actively participating in a variety of activities and contributing their precious time, wisdom and money to support the organization in the past year. Service by Dr. Ling Zheng as AAFMUA Treasurer is always appreciated, as he spends much time in handling the financial responsibilities of AAFMUA. We are deeply grateful to our founding and Honorary President Dr. Ruoqing Huang for his strong support to AAFMUA in many ways. Our thanks also go to
many alumni who pay the membership fee or donate money to support our organization (for details, please visit our Web site at <www.fjmufriends.com>).
Tongchuan Li, M.D., Ph.D.
AAFMUA President (2002-2004)
Feb. 26, 2004