– I bow to all the brave and stubborn discoverers in medicine who travel deep into the great, mysterious continent that is the human body. Their discoveries are the greatest treasures that can be shared with others. These treasures are better health and longer life – said Olga Tokarczuk during the ceremonial gala organized on June 5 at the National Forum of Music on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Wroclaw Medical University.
Over a thousand people celebrated the university’s jubilee at the National Forum of Music, and hundreds more joined them via online broadcast. Among the invited guests were representatives of the ministries of health and science – prof. Urszula Demkow and prof. Maria Mrówczyńska, Lower Silesian Voivode Anna Żabska, Jarosław Rabczenko from the Board of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the mayor of Wrocław Jacek Sutryk. The guests’ speeches repeatedly emphasized the high position of the “celebrant” – the best Polish university in international rankings.
In his speech, the Rector of WMU, Prof. Piotr Ponikowski, referred many times to the community created by university employees, students, doctoral students, graduates, and friends. A community that is aware of its position and achievements, remembers its past, is proud of the present created together and works for its future.
– Jubilees are ideal occasions to remember those who came before us – said Prof. Piotr Ponikowski. – In our case, these are memories and special traces, paying tribute to outstanding German doctors, the forerunners of our Alma Mater, and thanking those who rebuilt university medicine for us in post-war Wrocław. Going back to the very beginnings, the first rector of the current University of Wrocław, from which we all come, was Carl August Wilhelm Berends, a German doctor and philosopher, a scholar; after completing his duties in 1815, he headed the Berlin university hospital Charité, with which we have a lot in common today. These were the times when the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Wrocław achieved the significance of a “European medical school”, in the creation of which for over 100 years Germans, Poles, Czechs and Jews participated. This is again the wonderful history of our multicultural city, of which we are proud. The first dean of the Faculty of Medicine established after the war (one of five faculties of the University and Polytechnic in Wrocław) was Prof. Ludwik Hirszfeld, who gave a lecture inaugurating the first academic year in Wrocław on 6 September 1945.
A symbolic date in the history of WMU is 1 January 1950, when the Faculty of Medicine was transformed into an independent university – the Medical Academy (later the Medical University), whose first rector was Prof. Zbigniew Albert.
The Rector of the University of Warsaw emphasized the current achievements of the university’s employees and the University Clinical Hospital, which is part of it, including the successes of the pediatric hematooncology, pediatric surgery, neonatology teams; successes in the treatment of heart and vascular diseases with over 200 heart transplants performed in just four years; the successes of the urologists’ team using robotic surgery on a daily basis; socially important research by teams of psychiatrists and psychologists. He also mentioned the possibilities of imaging diagnostics at the University of Warsaw and the team of anesthesiologists and intensive care specialists who “performed miracles” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
– Our main and fundamental goal is to help people. This is and will always remain our determinant, at the center of our professional activity is and always will be a sick person who requires and expects our help and total involvement in this help, using the best knowledge and the best tools, expects empathy from us – said Prof. Piotr Ponikowski, adding that he is proud of the employees of the University of Warsaw and the University of Warsaw.
The ceremony was an opportunity to present the university’s plans for the near future. One of the largest investments that is to connect the past with the future is the Medical Discovery Centre. It will be located in the historic building of the former surgery clinic on Maria Curie-Skłodowska Street. Presenting the MDC concept, Wioletta Samborska emphasised that it will be a space that teaches, moves and entertains, while bringing science closer to everyday life.
Anniversary awards The title of Ambassador of the Wroclaw Medical University, awarded for the first time in the history of the university, was received by the president of Wałbrzych, Dr. Roman Szełemej. Thanks to his support, WMU opened a branch of the Faculty of Medicine in Wałbrzych – the only Polish university with a positive opinion of the Polish Accreditation Committee. Standing ovations accompanied the presentation of the 75th anniversary awards to people who made special contributions not only to the Medical University of Wrocław, but to the entire Polish medicine. They were received by: Prof. Bogdan Łazarkiewicz, an outstanding surgeon, former rector of the university; Prof. Alicja Chybicka, former head of the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Oncology and Pediatric Hematology, who devoted her entire professional life to saving children with cancer, and Prof. Andrzej Kübler, former head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, distinguished among others for the development of pain medicine and palliative medicine.
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The presence of the Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Olga Tokarczuk, gave the ceremony special significance. In her lecture, the Wrocław Nobel Prize winner recalled a short history of the dualism of the soul and body in religious and philosophical terms. Her speech brought up a perverse question: why has nature not equipped us with any auto-diagnostic system that would allow us to know the exact state of our bodies; why does the average person know more about the moon than about their own liver?
The film prepared by the WMU Communication and Marketing Department brought many emotions to the participants, in which employees talked about their personal relationships with the university in spontaneous and emotional statements.
The 75th anniversary gala of the Wroclaw Medical University ended with a concert by Anna Maria Jopek and Piotr Wojtasik’s quintet.
– The future of medicine in Wrocław will be made up of our traces. We will preserve them in the projects we have completed, scientific discoveries, the care we have shown our patients, and the knowledge we have instilled in our students. We will preserve and commemorate them with the power of community – the image of this evening will stay with me forever – these words of the Rector of the Wroclaw Medical University, Professor Piotr Ponikowski, will also remain in the memory of the participants of this emotional ceremony.
Photo – Maciej Kulczyński
