Semmelweis University has conferred the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on eight professors at a November 11 ceremony held in the Semmelweis Salon. The honorary title, presented for the 37th time this year, recognises individuals who, in addition to making significant contributions to international science in their particular fields of expertise, have fostered a long and fruitful relationship with the University as well.
Professor István Bocskay (University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures, Romania) has been teaching dental, medical and Ph.D. students in Hungarian and Romanian for more than 50 years. He has fought persistently and effectively to keep the Hungarian language dentistry programme alive at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures.
Professor Bocskay’s professional relationship with Semmelweis University started more than 40 years ago. Due to his strenuous work, there has been a rapid development in this cooperation since 1990, resulting in what is now a flourishing exchange programme for the two universities’ faculty members and dental and Ph.D. students.
Professor Péter Ferenci (Medical University of Vienna) left Hungary when he was just nine years old, shortly after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Vienna in 1972. Professor Ferenci is a member of the editorial board of many prestigious medical journals, has organised numerous international congresses on gastroenterology and hepatology, and regularly participates at the annual meetings of the Hungarian Society of Gastroenterology.
His active relationship with Semmelweis University has been going on for many years. Thanks to his scientific cooperation with our University’s staff, numerous scientific papers have been published on Wilson disease and inflammatory bowel disease and many Ph.D. fellows from Budapest have had the opportunity to work in Professor Ferenci’s department in Vienna.
Professor Renato Vincenzo Iozzo (Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia) received his medical training in Italy and the United States. He has been a professor at Thomas Jefferson University’s Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology since 1988 and director of its Kimmel Cancer Centre’s Extracellular Matrix Programme since its inception. Professor Iozzo has been on the editorial board of many highly ranked international journals. His scientific activity has been recognised through numerous awards and honours.
Professor Iozzo has been successfully collaborating with Dr. Ilona Kovalszky and her research group at Semmelweis University’s 1st Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research for twenty years.
Professor Masaki Kitajima (International University of Health and Welfare Mita Hospital, Tokyo) has conducted exceptionally rich scientific research in such topics as the impairment of the gastrointestinal tract after stress-effects, microcirculatory changes observed during the transplantation process, biochemical factors of metastasis formation, and the gene therapy of malignant tumours. His pioneer studies on the detection of early gastric and colon cancer, the role of sentinel-node mapping of these fields and the successful introduction of robotic surgery have meant a new chapter in the history of surgery.
Professor Kitajima’s relationship with Hungary spans numerous years. He is the founding co-president of the Japan-Hungary Surgical Society and was awarded the Knight’s Cross Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic by the President in 2007.
Professor Örs Nagy (University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures, Romania) is well-known as a skilful and experienced orthopaedic surgeon, with a special interest in the field of joint replacement of the hip and knee and the treatment of musculoskeletal tumours. His research activity focuses on the relationship between orthopaedics and osteoporosis, and on the biointegration of non-cemented endoprosthesis. He has been director of his university’s 2nd Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology since 1994.
Professor Nagy is an honorary member of the Hungarian Orthopaedic Association and cooperates closely with the Department of Orthopaedics at Semmelweis University. In addition, Professor Nagy, as Vice-Rector of the University of Targu Mures, has been instrumental in launching and maintaining a medical, dental and pharmacy education exchange programme with Semmelweis University.
Professor Dirk Pickuth (Saarland University) studied medicine at the universities of Kiel, London, and Edinburgh. He has been director of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the Caritas Klinikum St. Theresia in Saarbrücken since 2001 and medical director of the Hospital Trust since 2006. Professor Pickuth’s scientific and clinical interests focus on oncological and abdominal imaging, as well as on whole body MRI and computer-assisted radiology.
For more than a decade, Professor Pickuth has regarded himself as an ambassador of Semmelweis University. His mission is to promote mutual cooperation between Hungary and Germany for the benefit of medicine, science, friendship, and peace. Professor Pickuth is proud to serve Semmelweis University as an academic lecturer and, since 2007, as a visiting professor of diagnostic radiology.
Professor James S. Skinner (Indiana University) is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Kinesiology. He has been actively investigating the relationships between exercise, training and health for more than 45 years and has lectured in English, French, German and Spanish in 58 countries about these relationships. His contribution to the international development of Sport Science and Sports Medicine, especially to the global initiation of the Exercise is Medicine movement is highly appreciated.
Professor Skinner has been working together with Hungarian scientists for many decades in International Federation of Sport Medicine and International College of Sport Science and Physical Education and his scientific activity has been really instrumental in the development of Sports Medicine and Sport Science in Hungary.
Professor Andrzej Wiecek (Medical University of Silesia, Poland) is head of the Department of Nephrology, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases. He is an established expert in the fields of internal medicine, nephrology, hypertension, clinical transplantation and angiology. A former president of the Polish Society of Nephrology and of the Polish Society of Hypertension, Professor Wiecek has also been a member of the editorial boards of various international scientific journals.
Professor Wiecek has been closely connected with our University for more than a decade. He gives lectures and consultations in Hungary regularly, and is a regular member of the teaching ward of the Nephrology Summer School in Budapest. Professor Wiecek actively supports the interests of Hungarian nephrology and Semmelweis University from both within and without, using the opportunities deriving from his position.
Compiled by Gina Gönczi and Pálma Dobozi
