Newsletter No. 39

中 大通訊 CUHK Newsletter Vol4-2 No. 39 February 1993 University News 30th Anniversary Lecture: Dementia, Ag i ng and Amyloidosis The f i r st 30th anniversary lecture, organized by the Faculty of Medicine, was held on 19th January at the Sir Run Run Shaw Hall. Dr. D. Carleton Gajdusek, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, delivered a public lecture on 'Dementia, Aging and Amyloidosis', which attracted an audience of over 800. Dr. Gajdusek, virologist of the Na t i o n al I ns t i t u te of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, USA, is renowned for his discovery of the ‘slow viruses', which are the infectious agents in kuru and other related chronic degenerative brain diseases. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1976 for the discovery. In the lecture, Dr. Gajdusek described dementia as a group of conditions characterized by progressive deterioration of intellectual functions with associated pathological changes in the brain. Clinical manifestations include failing of memory, loss of language ability, cognitive degeneration, and signs of disease in one or more areas of the brain. He pointed out that dementia was very common among old people in the Western countries and there were many causes of the disease. He then went on to discuss the characteristics of the slow viruses, how they cause pathological changes in the brain, and how amy l o i d, an abnormal extracellular protein found in patients with immune disorders and chronic infections, are pathogenetically linked to Alzheimer's disease, a common f o rm of dementia in old people. The lecture was sponsored by the Wei Lun Foundation Ltd. 30th Anniversary Celebration Activities Highlights for February and March • 30th Anniversary Lecture: Recent Economic Developments, the Clinton Administration and Business Education Development in the United States Speaker: Prof. Lester C. Thurow, Dean of Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Date: Thursday, 18th February Time: 4.30 p.m. Place: Lecture Theatre LT6, Lady Shaw Building Organizer: Faculty of Business Administration • 30th Anniversary Lecture: The Decline of Donnish Dominion Speaker: Prof. Albert Henry Halsey, Emeritus Professor of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Oxford, UK. Date: Wednesday, 10th March Time: 4.00 p.m. Place: Lecture Theatre L1, Science Centre Organizer: Faculty of Education • Critical Care '93 一 the Seventh Congress of the Western Pacific Association of Critical Care Medicine Date: 12th to 15th March Place: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Organizer: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care • 30th Anniversary Lecture: The Combination of Chinese and Western Cultures 一 The Modernization of Chinese Culture Speaker: Prof. Tse-tsung Chow, Professor of Chinese Literature and History, The University of Wisconsin, USA. Date: Thursday, 18th March Time: 4.30 p.m. Place: Shaw College Lecture Theatre Organizer: Faculty of Arts • 30th Anniversary Exhibition Date: 26th to 29th March Place: Exhibition Hall of the City Hall I