On June 5, Prof. Ingrid Fleming from Goethe University visited the School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, HUST and was awarded as the Advisory Professor of HUST, which is a high-level and permanent title for foreign experts. The Awarding Ceremony was held at the Second Meeting Room of Tongji Medical College. Academician You Zheng, President of HUST, presented the Letter of Appointment to Prof. Fleming. The Awarding Ceremony was hosted by Prof. Chen Jianguo, Vice President of HUST.

President You first gave a welcoming speech. He spoke highly of Prof. Fleming’s internationally recognized academic reputation and her great contribution to promoting research collaboration between HUST and Goethe University. He pointed out that Tongji Medical College was established by German doctor Erich Paulun and has maintained long-term friendly relationship with Germany. The awarding of Advisory Professorship not only is an acknowledgement of Prof. Fleming’s achievement in cardiovascular disease research, but also carries forward the friendship between Tongji Medical College and Germany. He hoped that in the future, both sides would stay innovation-oriented, give full play to the respective strong points, realize comprehensive synergies through the establishment of joint laboratories and ultimately achieve world-class research outcomes.

Prof. Shi Anbing, Dean of the School of Basic Medicine, introduced Prof. Fleming’s major academic achievements, and Prof. Wang Daowen, Honorary Head of Department of Internal Medicine of Tongji Hospital affiliated to HUST, briefly introduced his cooperation with Prof. Fleming.

Prof. Fleming said that she felt honored to become the Advisory Professor of HUST, which is a prestigious university with global reputation. She pointed out that Goethe University shared some similarities with HUST in terms of history and development. Since the School of Basic Medicine and the affiliated Tongji Hospital are significant partners of the Faculty of Medicine of Goethe University, she will continue to support the practical cooperation on platform construction, faculty and student exchanges, scientific research and talent training as part of her efforts to promote the friendly development of Sino-German relations.

In the afternoon, Prof. Fleming was invited to give a lecture entitled “Metabolic control of vascular function” to the students and faculty of Tongji Medical College, where Prof. Fleming presented her major findings in the field of cardiovascular diseases. After that, Prof. Fleming, together with Prof. Hu Jiong from the School of Basic Medicine and other related experts, had a sit-down conversation to talk over possible fields of cooperation in the future.

During her stay, Prof. Fleming paid a visit to the History Museum of Tongji Medical College, the Translational Medicine Building, the Museum of Human Anatomy, and the Department of Histology and Embryology of the School of Basic Medicine.

Prof. Ingrid Fleming is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and a member of the European Academy of Sciences. She was born in Ireland and moved to Germany in 1991. She was appointed as C3 Professor for Physiology in 2004 at Goethe University. In 2007, she worked as the Executive Director of the Centre for Physiology at Goethe University, and in 2008, she was appointed as W3 Professor, the highest rank of professorship in Germany, and became the chairperson of the Institute for Vascular Signaling, Goethe University. Since 2010, she has acted as the Executive Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine, Goethe University. And in 2022, she was appointed as the Dean of Research at Goethe University. She has a high reputation in the cardiovascular field worldwide. In the past years, she has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, which were published in Nature, Circulation, etc. And she has more than 38,000 total citations with an h-index of 101. After being appointed as the Visiting Professor of HUST in 2018, Prof. Fleming has maintained close collaboration with the team of Prof. Hu Jiong from the School of Basic Medicine and the team of Prof. Wang Daowen from the affiliated Tongji Hospital. They were awarded via the “Sino-German Collaborative Research Project” by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2020 and the “High-end Foreign Expert Program” in 2021. Next, both parties seek to establish a “Sino-German Laboratory of Cardiopulmonary Science” and deepen cooperation.

Written by: Wu Xingwen

Edited by: Chang Wen, Peng Yumeng