The 40th anniversary celebration of intercollegiate cooperation between HUST and Heidelberg University was held on the afternoon of December 4th. The occasion also marked Professor Michael Kirschfink winning the 2017-2019 Chime Bell Prize of Hubei Province. More than 100 Chinese and German scholars, in all fields, gathered online to celebrate it. Participants included Professor Jianguo Chen, vice president of HUST and president of Tongji Medical College, Professor Youmei Feng, Chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, former president of Tongji Medical University and a former key member of the senior leadership team at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Professor Marc-Philippe Weller, vice president of Heidelberg University.
In his speech, professor Jianguo Chen underscored Professor Michael Kirschfink‘s major contributions relating to the substantial achievements in teacher-student exchange, talent training, and scientific research project cooperation in the past 40 years. The scope of cooperation has been gradually extended from medicine to humanities & social sciences - including law, philosophy and sociology. This has further deepened cooperation and made greater contributions to solving common problems faced by societies, while promoting Sino-German friendship and cultural exchanges.
Professor Marc-Philippe Weller said that it was a great honor for Heidelberg University and for Professor Michael Kirschfink to win the Chime Bell Prize. He added that he had been impressed by the aid offered by HUST to Heidelberg University during the pandemic. Additionally, he hoped to cultivate more medical talents, for both China and Germany, while promoting collaboration between the two campuses to a new level by continuing carrying out clinical practice programs and Heidelberg University’s scholarship program.
Professor Youmei Feng extended congratulations to Professor Michael Kirschfink and praised the success achieved by the Sino-German medical education teacher training courses conducted by the two schools. Such success has profited both the staff of HUST and the domestic talent cultivation of medical education enormously.
In his acceptance speech, Professor Michael Kirschfink said that ,during his 25 years as the university collaboration representative to China, The wise are never puzzled, the benevolent are never worried, and the brave are never afraid has been his firm maxim. He added that over 150 HUST staff had been to Heidelberg University for further study, thus laying a solid foundation for personnel interactions between the two universities. With the support and help of Professor Fazu Qiu, Professor Zongbi Wu, Professor Anmin Chen, Professor Paul Gerhardt, Dean of Baolong College, and the late Professor Peter Wahl, president of Heidelberg University Medical Hospital, the two universities have made remarkable achievements in cooperation and exchange. He reaffirmed that he was privileged to be the witness to it.
In the special report session, some scholars, including Wenzhen Zhu, vice president of Tongji Hospital, Ming Xiang, director of Medical Office of Undergraduate Education, Dietrich Götze, former board chairman of Springer Verlag and sponsor of Heidelberg University scholarship program,and Rienk Offringa, head of the surgical department of Pancreatic Cancer Research Center of Heidelberg University Hospital, expressed sincere congratulations to Kirschfink. They commented respectively on the cooperation and friendship between Tongji Hospital and Heidelberg University, Sino-German teacher training and medical education talents, scholarship program of Heidelberg University and scientific research cooperation and exchange. In the free speech session, Chinese and German experts, including Heshui Wu, head of Pancreatic Surgery of Wuhan Union Hospital, Yan Hao, deputy director of Pediatrics of Tongji Hospital, Hans-Martin Bosse, deputy chief physician of Pediatrics of Heinrich Heine University Hospital, had in-depth exchanges of ideas on the results of cooperation and further cooperation plans.
Experts and scholars from Tongji Medical College, Tongji Hospital and Wuhan Union Hospital sent their best wishes through videos.
Heidelberg University was the first German university to establish an intercollegiate cooperation relationship with our university since the reform and opening up. It is also the German university with the widest scope of cooperation with our university - so far. The cooperation domains are medical fields, including the Department of Infection, Pancreatic Surgery, Radiology, Pediatrics. The cooperation also extends to humanities & social sciences fields, including Sociology and Philosophy. Since 1994, as the Heidelberg University exchange representative to China and emeritus professor of HUST, Professor Michael Kirschfink has been committed to pushing forward Sino-German cooperation and exchanges. He has promoted the establishment of Sino-German joint training courses for medical education teachers, Heidelberg University scholarship program, and clinical practice of German medical classes. Among them, the training courses have been successfully held for 11 years, benefiting 686 teachers in our school. Due to his outstanding contributions to Sino-German education exchange and cooperation, Michael Kirschfink received the 2017-2019 Chime Bell Prize, the highest award given by Hubei Province government to foreign experts.
Written by:Yiyang Zheng
Edited by: Scott, Yumeng Peng
Source:Office of International Affairs
Chinese
