It has been two years since the establishment of AAFMUA. 2001 was another great successful year with the enthusiastic support and unremitting effort by many alumni and AAFMUA leaders.
In the past year, our Vice Presidents, Drs. Ling Zheng and Tongchuan Li played an important role in applying for tax exemption status for our non-profit alumni organization. During this long application process, we worked closely to study the tax laws, unremittingly contacted IRS officials and finally got our tax exemption approved. Drs. Ling Zheng and Yi-Wu Huang, who are in charge of finance management of AAFMUA, also have done an excellent job with bookkeeping. They routinely make financial report to the Working Committee of AAFMUA. Dr. Ling Zheng had also successfully organized several alumni activities in New York. We all appreciate the tremendous amount of time and energy that Dr. Zheng has contributed to AAFMUA.
Owing
to the great effort by Dr. Yi-Shun Lin, Secretary-General of
AAFMUA, more and more FJMU alumni, either in U.S.A. or abroad,
get to know our organization. The frequently updated web site run
by Yi-Shun, www.aafmua.org
(please bookmark it for your frequent visit) has become an
important channel to our alumni community and outside world, and
provides our alumni the important, timing and interesting
information about AAFMUA, FMU, our hometowns, U.S.A., and to
exchange our experience, ideas, and help each other. In the
growing course of AAFMUA, the Information Services Division led
by Dr. Yi-Shun Lin has added more and more specialized columns to
web site. For example,
One of the important missions of AAFMUA is to promote the exchanges of clinical medicine, education, and biomedical research between FMU and the hospitals and universities in U.S.A. The alumni association introduces U.S. alumni to FMU when they visit Fujian. Visiting the alma mater has become an excellent opportunity to promote academic exchanges. Vice President, Dr. Tongchuan Li has been actively coordinating these visiting events, and made all these FMU visits successful. In the past year, 15 our alumni, Drs. Jinxing Yu, Minxin Fu, Shi-Du Yan, Fan Lin, Ning Tang, Jingsheng Zheng, Qing Lin, Xinjian Lin, Zaodong Lin, Ruoqing Huang, Lieping Chen, Yi-Wu Huang, Lurong Zhang, Minggui Pan, and Kun-ping Lu, visited FMU and its affiliated hospitals, and gave clinical and research seminars, They also participated in some clinical work, and exchanged research and clinical experience with their peers at FMU. In December, AAFMUA also cosponsored an international cancer research symposium held in FMU (see related report in www.aafmua.org). These academic activities will undoubtfully enhance the research and clinical work in FMU. In the past year, Drs. Shidu Yan, Ke-He Ruan, and He Li have accepted five visiting scholars from FMU to their research laboratories (Hui-Ping Zhang and Zhin-Yan Wu in Dr. Yan’s lab, Gangxiong Huang in Dr. Ruan’s lab, Longkun Zhu and Aiqin Chen in Dr. Li’s lab). Dr. Lurong Zhang has recently introduced Drs. Jianhua Xiu and Tao Zhang to her friend’s labs. Several alumni who hold professorship in the U.S.A. are also planning to accept visiting scholars and PhD students from FMU to their labs. We strongly believe that these academic exchanges will significantly benefit both FMU and research institutes in U.S.A. To promote the clinical exchange and strengthen the Clinical Medicine Committee, Dr. Zhengbo Huang, Director of the Committee, had actively recruited several new members for the committee, and gave AAFMUA many very constructive suggestions. In 2001, as another way to help FMU in its medical education and research, Drs. Lurong Zhang, Minggui Pan, Ning Tang, Yi-Wu Huang, Ruoqing Huang and Lieping Chen donated many medical books and CDs and other educational materials to FMU. Dr. Lurong Zhang also donated cell lines to FMU. The donation was highly appreciated by our alma mater.
In 2001, AAFMUA also organized a Recommendation Committee for Guest Professor of FMU. The Committee led by Dr. Tongchuan Li and Zhengbo Huang recommended 4 alumni, Drs. Fan Lin, Minxin Fu, Gong Chen and Su-He Wang, to FMU and they were appointed as Guest Professors. AAFMUA will recommend new candidates to FMU early 2002 according to The Regulation for FMU Guest Professor Appointment (see www.aafmua.org). These appointments will further promote the academic exchanges between AAFMUA and FMU. In the past year, we also entertained several guests from FMU, such as Drs. Caizhu Lin, Zhen Shi, Rong Zhang, Guorong Lu, and Jianhua Lin who came to the states for short academic visit. AAFMUA assisted FMU in searching for qualified native English speakers to be English teachers for the school.
Another important mission of the AAFMUA is to serve our alumni and the communities we live in. In 2001, the organization continued to provide a lot of information to our alumni, including information on personal finance, career, medical boards, as well as temporary housing. Dr. Ling Zheng, Vice President of AAFMUA and a New York State licensed acupuncturist has provided free medical consultation and acupuncture services to many American and Chinese patients at Chuang Yan Monastery, NY. Last year, AAFMUA also organized several alumni reunion parties in New York, Boston, and Maryland, providing the exciting opportunities for our alumni to meet new and old friends. Here, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Xuan-qi (John) Zhang, our Associate Secretary-General for his successful organization of the parties in Boston, for many timely suggestions to AAFMUA, especially after the 9.11 event. Although he has very busy private practice he always tries his best to support AAFMUA. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to another Associate Secretary-General, Dr. Defu Zheng, for his masterpiece job in editing the first issue of our report on Outstanding Alumni (see related articles in www.aafmua.org), for his many constructive suggestions to AAFMUA. My many thanks also go to Drs. Defu Zheng and Minggui Pan for representing AAFMUA to express our love and care to our respected Honory President, Dr. Yunying Shen who is sick currently. I am deeply touched by many of our alumni who sent greetings to Dr. Shen (yunyings@yahoo.com or called her (831-425-2956) to show our spiritual support. It is highly appreciated for Dr. Ken Chen’s wonderful job that keeps our alumni directory updated. I will also not forget Dr. Yi-Wu Huang who contributed significant amount of time to actively participate in AAFMUA activities and particularly, helped organize the international cancer research symposium in FMU. I am deeply grateful to our Secretary-General, Dr. Yi-shun Lin who not only spends tremendous amount of time to maintain and frequently updated our web site but also actively coordinates and participates in many work I mentioned above. I am very pleased to have opportunity to serve our alumni and also so lucky to have our vice presidents, Drs. Tongchuan Li and Ling Zheng, who strongly support my work.
The great success achieved by AAFMUA will not be possible without the continuous support by our alumni. Many of our alumni who I did not mention above have been actively participating in a variety of activities and contributing their precious time and money to support the organization. With the approach of the second anniversary of AAFMUA, the second term of AAFMUA leadership election is coming. I strongly encourage our alumni to actively participate in the leadership nomination and show your continuous support to AAFMUA. We work as a team, a strong, united and efficient team, for our great missions.
Ruoqing Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
AAFMUA President