Newsletter No. 47

CUHK Newsletter No.47 October 1993 Nine Victories in a Row For three years in a row the CUHK rowing teams have achieved excellent results and have remained undefeated in the intervarsity rowing competition held annually on the Shing Mun River. In the seventh intervarsity rowing championship held on 19th September this year, the CUHK men's team beat its Hong Kong University counterpart in the coxed eight 4,500-metre race for the third time in three consecutive years and will keep the Pocari Cup permanently. The women's team also achieved its fourth successive victory in the coxed four 1,500-metxe race. The mi xed team defeated all opponents in the second Inter- postsecondary School Students Invitation Race and was awarded the Hang Seng Invitation Cup for the second time. The i n t e r va r s i ty r ow i ng championship was first organized in 1987 to promote interest in rowing and has become an important annual event between the two universities. The victories of the CUHK r owi ng teams this year were well deserved as they were the result of intensive training since May. Workshop on Computer Databases of Chinese Medicine A 'Workshop on Computer Databases of Traditional Chinese Medicine Literature' was organized by the University's Chinese Medicinal Material Research Centre from 13th to 15th September 1993. Scientific sessions were conducted in the Cho Yiu Conference Hall and demonstrations in the research centre. Sponsored by the International Development Research Centre; the workshop brought together conveners of major databases of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, who exchanged information on the strengths and capabilities of their databases and explored possibilities of collaboration and ne two r k i ng among the three regions. It marked a major milestone in the consolidation of information collection and dissemination in Chinese medicine. Thirty-three experts in the field attended the workshop. They included Dr. H. M. Chang and Dr. Paul But of the University; Prof. C. F. Chen of National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Taipei; Prof. S. T. Yuan, Prof. J. H. Ding and Prof. N. C. Wu of the China Academy of T r ad i t i onal Chinese Medicine; Prof. S. J. Li of the State Pharmaceutical Administration of China; Prof. J. Du of Fujian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine; and Dr. Richard Hsieh of the US National Library of Medicine. HK$2.9 Million from Croucher Foundation for Research The Trustees of the Croucher Foundation have recently pledged donations totalling HK$2,891,040 for four research projects launched by members of the University: (1)HK$680,000 for a research project entitled 'Synthesis of non-bridged rhodium [II] and iridium [II] metal dimers as potential catalysts for fuel cell technology' conductedby Dr. K.S. Chan of the Department of Chemistry. (2)HK$400,000 for a research project entitled 'Numerical modelling of winter monsoon surges with forecasting applications in Southern China' conducted by Prof. Kenneth Young of the Department of Physics. (3)HK$1,324,000 for a research project entitled 'Characterization of extracellular ATP-activated ion channels in single cells isolated from guinea pig sinoatrial node' conducted by Dr. Y. W. Kwan of the Department of Pharmacology. (4)HK$487,040 for a research project entitled 'Iron deficient and thalassaemic erythrocytes, mechanisms of p r o t ec t i on against Plasmodium falciparum' conducted by Prof. S. J. Oppenheimer of the Department of Paediatrics. 2