It has been my pleasure to serves as president of AAFMUA since February of 2002 when the second term leadership was elected. 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. Now I want to highlight our major activities in 2002 and present you an annual report of AAFMUA.
1. Formation of the second term of AAFMUA leadership.
The first term of leaders of AAFMUA had completed their tenure and relayed their responsibility to the second term of leaders in early 2002. After two years of service, Drs. Ruoqing Huang (Founding President of AAFMUA) and Ling Zheng (Vice President) wanted to refocus efforts to their careers, therefore, a new leadership of AAFMUA needed to be elected. After the primary nomination by AAFMUA members, seven candidates were generated and then voted by the Working Committee Members of AAFMUA. The new leadership of AAFMUA with a president (Tongchuan Li) and four vice presidents (Yi-shun Lin, Zheng-Bo Huang, Yiwu Huang and Defu Zeng) were elected by the Working Committee. The second term of AAFMUA Working Committee was also established by the new leadership. On February 23, AAFMUA had a meeting in New York City and the second term of AAFMUA leadership as well as the Working Committee was officially inaugurated.
2. Invite FJMU delegation visiting U.S. universities and other institutions.
Invited by AAFMUA, a delegation from Fujian Medical University (FJMU) led by President Liying Chen, visited the United States from May 9 to May 14, 2002. Their trip started with visiting Canada, then Boston, New York and Washington, DC. On their trip to the east coast, the delegation visited many medical and academic institutions (such as Mass. General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University, Georgetown University) and met with many FJMU alumni as well. Other members of the delegation included Prof. Ming Zheng (Dean of FJMU), Prof. Xiaonan Wu (Director of Foreign Affairs, FJMU), Prof. Jianhua Lin (President of the First Affiliated Hospital of FJMU) and Dr. Hui Cheng (VP of Dental Hospital, FJMU).
3. AAFMUA delegation to attend the 65th anniversary of our home university FJMU.
FJMU invited the alumni in the United States to attend the 65th anniversary of our home university. Fourteen of us (Drs. Ruoqing Huang, Lieping Chen, Lurong Zhang, Shidu Yan, Jizhen Lin, Ken Chen, Hong Zhou, Jiangming Luo, Nan Pan, Wei Cao, Jun Zheng, Guangyi Xu, Benlu Chen and me) flew back to Fuzhou participating in the celebration, which was indeed an exciting and successful event. I was given a privilege to deliver a congratulatory speech, representing all overseas and domestic alumni, at the anniversary ceremony. Drs. Lurong Zhang, Shidu Yan, Jizhen Lin, Hong Zhou, Jun Zheng and Tongchuan Li also gave scientific seminars at FJMU during the visit. Dr. Lieping Chen presented his scientific advice to FJMU in a special conference. Drs. Ruoqing Huang, Wei Cao, Jizhen Lin, Lurong Zhang and Ken Chen were invited to attend a forum on education and development of FJMU. Drs. Ruoqing Huang and Lurong Zhang, as Associate Deans of College of Basic Medical Sciences, attended a special education and research meeting with other college leaders and Department chiefs and gave their sincere suggestions and advices. Dr. Ruoqing Huang was also interviewed by Fujian TV station and gave a talk on current cancer research and treatment. Prof. Yuan-Zhong Chen, the President of AAFMUA met with us all and had constructive discussions in a separate meeting.
4. Scientific exchanges between AAFMUA and FJMU.
In the past year, there were total 19 of our alumni who visited FJMU and presented scientific seminars at the university. They are Drs. Ke-he Ruan, Zenming Lei, Shidu Yan, Jingping Lin, Ke Zhang, Lizhen He, He Li, Boqing Chen, Zheng-Bo Huang, Jun Zheng, Lurong Zhang, Jizhen Lin, Hong Zhou and Tongchuan Li. Some alumni (Profs. Lieping Chen, Lurong Zhang, Shidu Yan, He Li, Zenming Lei, Qing Lin, Ke-he Run, and Kun-ping Lu) working in American universities accepted postdoctors or visitors from our home university to their labs for advanced studies. Drs. Defu Zeng and Zao-Dong Lin are now in process accepting Postdocs from FJMU. Drs. Ken Chen, Ruoqing Huang, Yi-Wu Huang, Lurong Zhang, Ning Tang and Tongchuan Li donated educational materials such as CDs and textbooks to FJMU. Drs. Lurong Zhang and Jizhen Lin also provided research agents and cell lines to some research labs with which they have cooperated. All these contributions have been greatly appreciated by FJMU.
5. Recommended 8 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 achivements. In 2002, we recommended Drs. Xiang Gao, Che Fang, Kai Zhang, Hui Guan, Xinjian Lin, Ruoping Dai, Jun Zheng and Jiangming Luo 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.
6. More outstanding alumni of AAFMUA were named.
Based on their scientific accomplishments, AAFMUA named three of its members, Profs. Lurong Zhang, Zhenmin Lei and Ke-He Ruan, as outstanding alumni and post the introductions on our website in 2002. The significant contributions of our founding president Dr. Ruoqing Huang were also recognized along with those outstanding alumni. Please see more details at: https://www.fjmufriends.com We thank Dr. Defu Zeng for writing those nice English articles on the outstanding alumni.
7. AAFMUA website, directory and e-mail database updates.
With significant contributions made by Dr. Yi-shun 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 and AAFMUA activities 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 32,000 visits.
Dr. Yiwu Huang (VP of AAFMUA) and Dr. Ken Chen are the main contributors for our directory and e-mail database updates. Their nice work keeps our communication channel open and effective.
8. Regional alumni activities.
In 2002, with the great help of Dr. Ling Zheng, AAFMU successfully organized two welcome parties to FJMU delegation and Dr. Xizhong Hu, and a Chinese New Year Party in NYC. Alumni in the areas of Washington D.C/Maryland., San Francisco and Chicago also held their regional parties of different sizes, to promote their communication and friendship to each other.
Last but not least, I sincerely thank many of our alumni who have been actively participating in a variety of activities and contributing their precious time and money to support the organization in the past year. Service by Dr. Ling Zheng as AAFMUA Treasurer is appreciated, as he spends much time in handling the financial responsibilities of AAFMUA. We are deeply grateful to our Honorary President Dr. Ruoqing Huang for his strong support to AAFMUA in many aspects. In addition, he flew to California visiting Prof. Yunying Shen (with cancer) on behalf of AAFMUA at his own expenses. 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)
March 6, 2003