The 1991 Nobel Prize laureate of Physiology, Prof. Erwin Neher visited HUST on April 6 and 7, with his wife Mrs. Eva-Maria Neher. The Nehers were invited by Cheung Kong Scholar Prof. Xu Tao and Prof. Liu Jianfeng, Vice Dean of School of Life Science and Technology. Prof. Lu Gang, Chairman of HUST University Committee, Prof. Li Peigen, HUST President, and Prof. Feng Youmei, Executive Vice Chairman of HUST University Committee, respectively met the Nehers.
Prof. Li Peigen met the Nehers on the morning of April 6. He started with a briefing on the origin and development of HUST School of Life Science and Technology, pointing out life science is of utmost priority in HUST strategy. Prof. Li further expressed his hope that HUST would establish a leading role in this discipline in the foreseeable future. He also introduced the development of Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and Pulsed High Magnetic Field in HUST.
The Nehers enquired about the Chinese higher education system with interest. When told HUST was like a city with its own kindergarden, primary school, secondary school and logistic systems, Prof. Neher was a little surprised. Then he proceeded with questions about education in the affiliated middle school, the intake scale of HUST and the admission rate of high school students, which Prof. Li and his colleagues answered with pleasure. The two sides also exchanged ideas about the difference between the two university systems.
Prof. Neher said he would gladly give some suggestions to the students' laboratory work and HUST development. Prof. Li welcomed Dr. Neher's proposal and presented his plan to introduce famous professors to HUST after their retirement. He hoped that Dr. Neher would further his exchange and collaboration with HUST in the future. Prof. Neher mentioned that he had supervised over ten Chinese students. Prof. Zhou Zhuan a leading scholar in biology and professor in Peking University, who got his PhD in HUST and Prof. Xu Tao Cheung Kong Scholar and Specially-Appointed Professor of HUST are among the ones who once worked in his laboratory.
On the evening, Prof. Neher presented the Scientific Spirit and Practice Forum as a specially-invited guest speaker. His lecture Brain Signals: Communication and Information Processing in the Central Nervous System was welcomed by hundreds of inquisitive students cramming every corner of the Management School Auditorium.
During the trip in Wuhan, the Nehers also visited the Wuhan National Biological Industry Base, Pulsed High Magnetic Field and laboratories of HUST School of Life Science & Technology. They exchanged with the faculty and students in SLST and gave suggestions to the students' laboratory work.
Erwin Neher was born in Germany in 1944. He has been with the Max-Planck Institute of Bi-physical Chemistry in Gottingen since 1972. Now Prof. Neher is the director of the institute and Dean of the Department of Membrane Biophysics in University of Gottingen. He was awarded Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1991 together with B. Sakamann for the discovery of cellular ion channel and patch clam technique.
