?Special Talk?
              
            
            
              Prof. Kenichi Mitsunami
            
            
              
                MITSUNAMI:
              
            
            
              Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome
            
            
              to this table talk on “Studying and researching abroad at Shi-
            
            
              ga University of Medical Science (SUMS).” I am Kenichi Mit-
            
            
              sunami, Editor of the Shiga-Idai News. Professor Reiko Aiura
            
            
              of English and I, hosting this session, have high hopes for a
            
            
              fruitful discussion about good and bad points of studying and
            
            
              researching at SUMS, including everyday life, and would like
            
            
              to find our university's unique way to contribute to the world
            
            
              in the fields of medical research.
            
            
               Today we have 4 overseas graduate students of different
            
            
              countries, departments, and genders. First of all. I would like
            
            
              each to introduce her-or himself. Please tell us how, why and
            
            
              what you are studying here at SUMS. First Maryam, please.
            
            
              
                MARYAM:
              
            
            
              My name is Maryam Zaid. I’m from Canada, origi-
            
            
              nally from Kuwait. In Canada I had my Master’s in biochem-
            
            
              istry. Now I’m in 2
            
            
              nd
            
            
              year PhD at SUMS, in the Department of
            
            
              Health Science under Professor Miura.
            
            
              
                AIURA:
              
            
            
              Why are you studying here?
            
            
              
                MARYAM:
              
            
            
              First I came under the SUMS project grant. It’s a
            
            
              1-year program to encourage researchers to become PhD
            
            
              students. So after 6 months here I enrolled in the PhD pro-
            
            
              gram, mainly because my
            
            
              university, the University of
            
            
              Ottawa, had an agreement
            
            
              with SUMS. I really liked my
            
            
              department at SUMS, which
            
            
              is very well known too.
            
            
              
                MITSUNAMI:
              
            
            
              The most impor-
            
            
              tant point is that there have
            
            
              been exchange programs be-
            
            
              tween our universities. Next,
            
            
              Naomi please.
            
            
              
                NAOMI:
              
            
            
              Good afternoon. I
            
            
              come from Kenya, where I graduated with a degree in bio-
            
            
              chemistry and I joined a university as a graduate assistant, and
            
            
              then I came to SUMS through the Monbukagakusho scholar-
            
            
              ship program. I chose SUMS because the Molecular Neurosci-
            
            
              ence Research Center was doing what I wanted to do. Current-
            
            
              ly I’m a 4
            
            
              th
            
            
              year PhD student in the department of Professor
            
            
              Tooyoma.
            
            
              
                MITSUNAMI:
              
            
            
              So you found in this university exactly what you
            
            
              wanted to research?
            
            
              
                NAOMI:
              
            
            
              Yes, something other than infectious disease, which is
            
            
              the main research area in my country. I wanted to study non-
            
            
              communicable diseases, specifically neurological diseases.
            
            
              
                AIURA:
              
            
            
              Of course we made an academic agreement with Nai-
            
            
              robi University, last year.
            
            
              
                MITSUNAMI:
              
            
            
              Next, Yang please.
            
            
              
                YANG:
              
            
            
              Good afternoon My name is Yang Hongkuan, and I’m
            
            
              from Harbin Medical University. I started my Master’s course
            
            
              in the Neurosurgery Department, and then I had 3 years in-
            
            
              ternship there.
            
            
              
                AIURA:
              
            
            
              You’re a neurosurgeon in your country, aren’t you?
            
            
              
                YANG:
              
            
            
              Yes, my supervisor in China had studied in Japan for 5
            
            
              years, and highly recommended Japanese medical education.
            
            
              I did only clinical work and had no experience in fundamental
            
            
              research.  I was very lucky to be selected as one of the first
            
            
              SUMS Project researchers.  I researched brain tumors in China,
            
            
              and here we deal with neuro-degeneration; for brain tumor, we
            
            
              try to kill the brain tumor cells, but here we try to prevent the
            
            
              death of cells or promote growth of cells.
            
            
              
                MITSUNAMI:
              
            
            
              I see. So the main reason to come here was the
            
            
              SUMS project, was it?
            
            
              
                YANG:
              
            
            
              Yes; another reason was that I wanted to make my ca-
            
            
              reer complete.
            
            
              
                AIURA:
              
            
            
              When you came on the SUMS project, did you think
            
            
              Table Talk: Studying in SUMS
            
            
              -What SUMS Can Offer for Overseas Researchers -
            
            
              Ⅰ
            
            
              Table Talk: Studying in SUMS*
            
            
              - What SUMS Can Offer for Overseas Researchers -
            
            
              * SUMS: Shiga University of Medical Science
            
            
              Hosts   Prof. Kenichi Mitsunami(Dept. of Family Medicine)
            
            
                 Prof. Reiko Aiura(Dept. of Culture and Medicine)
            
            
              Speakers     Naomi Jepchirchir Bisem (PhD Course 4
            
            
              th
            
            
              year)
            
            
              Molecular Neuroscience Research Center
            
            
              Maryam Zaid (PhD Course 2
            
            
              nd
            
            
              year)
            
            
              Dept. of Social Medicine (Health Science)
            
            
              Yang Hongkuan (PhD Course 2
            
            
              nd
            
            
              year)
            
            
              Molecular Neuroscience Research Center
            
            
              Nguyen Quoc Vinh (PhD Course 1
            
            
              st
            
            
              year)
            
            
              Dept. of Surgery (Gastrointestinal and General Surgery)
            
            
              28
            
            
              SH I GA I DA I NEWS v o l . 2 2