Rupadin

“What’s a Festschrift?” my youngest asks. “In German it means ‘celebration writing’,” I say, “I’m going to an academic conference to honour a doctor.” The notion of voluntary learning prompts an eye roll from his teenage sister: “Can’t say I relate.” An eminent surgeon is retiring after 50 years of public service. All too often we allow such contributors to fade away without notice, so the acknowledgment arranged by one of his colleagues is noteworthy. Australia’s new national cancer plan is brimming with good ideas – here are my top three picks How to celebrate a man whose career spans half a century, hundreds of publications, seminal textbooks, an eponymous operation, military deployment, developing world aid, international renown, prolific musicality, teaching, training and mentoring? In the same way you eat an elephant: piece by piece.

Congratulations to Dr Penny Whiley, a Postdoctoral Researcher supervised by Professor Kate Loveland, Head of Graduate Studies, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, who has been awarded the 2024 Lonnie D Russell Merit Award at the recent 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Andrology Conference held from 29 April – 2 May 2024 in Denver, Colorado, USA. Dr Whiley is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Centre for Reproductive Health, Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

A £1.1million project could make it easier and cheaper for pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines that work effectively for patients. De Montfort University Leicester (DMU)’s Professor Mingzhong Li and Professor Walkiria Schlindwein were awarded more than £674,890 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for the project, working alongside a team at the University of Surrey which received £409,247.