Annual Report of AAFMUA
Year 2003
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
Schools 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 Zengs
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
Lins 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. 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 (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 Chens 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.aafmua.org>).
Tongchuan Li, M.D., Ph.D.
AAFMUA President (2002-2004)
Feb. 26, 2004