Research Express@NCKU

With the roundtable discussion with a title “Seize Your Great Chance with the World’s Top Academicians!” on 20th October at the NCKU College of Medicine, students and faculty had a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the dream combination of three extraordinary scientists - Dr. Britton Chance, a member of the National Academy of Science of the USA, Dr. Oliver Smithies, one of the 2007 Nobel Laureates in Medicine and Dr. Nobuyo Maeda, the Robert H. Wagner Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When great minds met it was a definitive uplifting symposium experience.

This great event was made possible by the Office of Research and Development and the Institute of Innovative and Advanced Studies at NCKU. The gathering was open to all interested audience. It ran from 9:00 to 10:00 am on October 20th 2008, in the Lecture Hall No. 3 of the College of Medicine.

The moderator of this rendezvous, Professor Ming-Jer Tang, the NCKU Vice President for the Office of Academic Affairs, acclaimed the contributions that these three scientists made to science and education, and encouraged students to take them as model since they are passionate and concentrated to their researches.

Dr. Britton Chance said as an educator, he would be glad to help students, the main body of the university, to solve their problems and to stimulate students on their research.

Dr. Oliver Smithies stressed that learning should be enjoyable and joyful, rather than difficult. He also added that scientists should continuously learn, make hypotheses, and do the experiments in pursue of the truth. And he also believes that the teacher and the student can benefit from each other.

Dr. Nobuyo Maeda pointed that, although it is ideal to be an erudite researcher and scholar, learning by setting a smaller goal can also be acceptable. She also added that being open-minded is the most important in the collaborative researches which require people with different research background working together. With different research backgrounds it can really help people think differently and in broader views.

Dr. Oliver Smithies said in a joke that textbook, what author believed in his resource and data, is not absolutely correct. He encouraged students to look at the original information and raw data if they doubted the result. He also mentioned an example about how diligently he looked for a journal before in order to find the raw data. Therefore, Dr. Britton Chance added that research requires being open-minded and “being doubtful”.