Postgraduate Education Workshops as a Model of Education and Discussion Platforms

Abstract

It is well established that upgrading the quality of education to the highest standards requires the efforts not only of universities, but also of scientific, industrial, and civil institutions, among which “learned-societies” constitute a significant component (5th ORPHEUS Conference, Vienna, 2010). The Education Committee of FEBS (Federation of European Biochemical Societies) (http://www.febs.org/index.php?id=282) has as its mission the promotion of high-quality education; this chapter focuses on the postgraduate perspective of FEBS education activities and provides a model of how this mission can be established through workshops used as tools of education and discussion platforms.

Appendix

This following is an excerpt from G. Guner-Akdogan’s “Tribute to Ed Wood”, published in: Turk J Biochem 2009;34(4):197–203.

… Ed Wood’s sadly passing away has been and will always be considered as a great loss for the Biochemistry World. His wisdom and knowledge, expertise in educational matters, creativity, reponsibility in all his endavours, inexhaustible productivity, readiness to share his knowledge and experience with others, his modesty, his warm and sincere friendship, his honest character will always be remembered by his friends and colleagues in Turkish Biochemical Society, as well as in the whole world …

Memorial for Prof. Ed WOOD, February 3, 2009 Leeds University (UK)

It was an honor for me to attend, in the name of FEBS Education Committee, the Memorial, organised by Ed’s family and the University of Leeds, on February 3rd, 2009 which was the 68th anniversary of Ed. The ceremony was organised with great care. There were around 120 participants. Firstly, Ben Wood, Ed’s elder son, made a welcome talk and described Ed as a “Father” and a “Human Being”. He added that the whole family was happy to have made their last extended vacation with Ed in Turkey, a country which Ed liked so much. I was invited by Helen Wood to the family table. Following an elegant lunch, Ben Wood gave the chair to people who wanted to talk about Ed. I believe that a summary of this important event will be useful from the point of view of sharing the characteristics of Ed as a colleague, as a friend and as a human being. The first speaker was Prof. Donald Nicholson, who knew Ed since a very long time. He described Ed’s different features; Ed had taken wholeheartedly the responsibility of displaying Nicholson’s metabolic pathways in FEBS and IUBMB Meetings. We learned that the red tie which Prof. Nicholson wore on that occasion was a gift that Ed had brought to him from Thailand. Secondly, I was invited to talk in the name of FEBS Education Committee. It was an honorable and at the same time, a difficult task. I read the messages of thankfulness, recognition, and respect from: FEBS Education Committee, of which he was the First VOET & VOET, the editors of BAMBED, the journal which followed Biochemical Education, of which Ed was the Editor for over 20 years; Turkish Biochemical Society, with which Ed was closely associated over long years; Bulgarian Biochemical Society, which highly esteemed Ed Wood in many ways, and; Sofia University, for which Ed had planned and organised the Biochemistry Education Workshop, which he could not attend, due to health reasons. Then, Ed’s second son, Dominic Wood read the warm, letter from Prof. Frank Vella, who was a colleague and a good friend of Ed for long years. This had a more informal tone than the Tribute which appeared in BAMBED. Briefly, in this message, Frank tells that he knew Ed for more than three decades; that a “brotherly” and between the years 1985–1992, they organised together Biochemistry Education Workshops in the following cities: Karachi, Porta, Manila, Dubrovnik, Thesalloniki, Ankara, Kuala Lumpur, Cali and Lima, Bucharest, Melbourne, and Izmir. During these workshops, an intense sharing of information and experience occured and colleague and friendship ties were formed. The workshop reports written and shared with the entire biochemistry community, were, in my opinion, facts which will always be important from the aspect of “History of Biochemical Education”. Prof. J Cunliffe, a dermatology professor in the Medical School of Leeds University, who was Ed’s collaborator in the dermatological biochemistry field, talked about Ed’s scientific merits, his role on the research team, and about their multidisciplinary work which ended in fruitful results. The final talk was done by Prof. Harry Hassall, who had worked with Ed in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Leeds, for long years and who, after retirement in 1991, had handed over the Chairship to Ed. With his overtaking style, he shared with the audience the following: Prof. Hassall had known Ed when he was around 30; throughout the long years, Ed had never lost his motivation, optimism, and work-capacity; he always had a future to plan and the serious health problems and operations were esteemed as minor, thus rending the “Loss” as an unpredictable reality. Ed’s loss was as if “the light was turned-off and gone suddenly”-however, in retrospect, the warning signs were there …

The participants were holding their breath. Prof. Hassal concluded his talk by reading the following poem by Primo Levi, which he did not know if Ed knew, but which he thought It reflected the feeling Ed had for his friends and numerous people whom he met throughout his life.

“To My Friends”

Dear friends, and here I say ‘friends’ in the broad sense of the word:

Wife, sister, associates, relatives, schoolmates, men and women –

People seen only once, or frequented all my life: provided that between us, for at least a moment, a bond was formed, a well-defined chord.

I speak for you, companions on a journey, through thick and thin on a challenging road, and also for you who have lost Soul,

Courage, the Will to Live.

Or no one or someone, or perhaps only one person, or (just) you who are reading (hearing) me;

Remember the time before the wax hardened, when each of us was like a seal.

Each of us bears the imprint of friends met along the way;

In each the trace of each.

For good or evil, in wisdom or in folly. Each stamped by each.

Now that time presses urgently, and the tasks are finished,

To all of you the modest wish

That the Autumn may be long and mild.

Primo Levi, Dec. 1985