During the 120th anniversary celebration of HZAU, two Nobel laureates were invited to give lectures and the University conferred honorary professorship on them on the morning of October 3.
Professor Barry Marshall, winner of Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2005, gave a lecture at 8:30 a.m. His lecture topic was “Discovery of Helicobacter pylori and latest development”.
Professor Barry Marshall is a world-renowned clinician of peptic diseases and was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the causative link between Helicobacter pylori(HP) infection and stomach cancer. He is now a professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Western Australia as well as a foreign honorary member of CAE(the Chinese Academy of Engineering) and NAS(National Academic of Sciences).
In his lecture, Professor Marshall shared his story of research in a humorous and vivid way and paid tribute to the predecessors. He said that he was challenged in the initial phase of studying HP, but he decided to continue his research and even experimented on himself. Eventually, he successfully proved his idea. With his story, he encouraged us not to give up but to consistently explore and innovate in scientific research. Later on, Professor Marshal introduced the pathogenesis and treatment of HP and gastric ulcer.
At 10:15 a.m., Professor Johann Deisenhofer, winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988, gave an lecture entitled “Photosynthesis, the most important chemical reaction on earth”.
Professor Johann Deisenhofer is a German biochemist who, together with other two professors received the Nobel Prize for their determination of the first crystal structure of an integral membrane protein, a membrane-bound complex of proteins and co-factors that is essential to photosynthesis. He is a leading expert in the field of photosynthesis research and also a foreign honorary member of NAS and Academia Europaea(The Academy of Europe).
In the report, Professor Deisenhofer first introduced the background knowledge about his research, including the structure of chloroplasts, the fundamentals of photoreaction, and the processes of photoreaction in chloroplasts. Then, he detailed the atomic distribution and structural characteristics of the photosynthetic reaction center in photosynthesis bacteria. Next, he referred to the major achievements of research on the three-dimensional structure of the photosynthetic reaction system over the past few decades, and explained the structural characteristics of transmembrane helix and cofactor in the core region of two types of photosynthetic systems by taking the structure of type II photosynthetic system of thermophilic cyanobacteria and the structure analysis of type I photosynthetic system of Synechococcus longiensis as examples. In the end, he presented the important role that photosynthesis may play in changing the oxygen concentration in earth atmosphere.
On the occasion of the school anniversary, their presence added glitters to the big day. Guo Yuyao, an undergraduate of College of Life Science and Technology, said "The two scholars are leading scientists. Their research experiences has inspired me a lot and gives me a deeper understanding of the scientific research spirit and craftsmanship. Zhang Xiuyan, a teacher of College of Food Science & Technology, said "The two respectful scholars will encourage me to better fulfill the task of teaching and studying".
