Tamar Ghosh: Travels to Japan

My trip started with a visit to Nagasaki University, and its Institute of Tropical Medicine.  At the University I was able to have a tour of the facilities and departments, meeting many of the faculty and also PHD students, and those enrolled on the DTM&H course. I was able to give a short presentation about RSTMH to DTM&H students as part of one of their teaching days. It was good to talk about the many ways RSTMH support early careers, through our directory, guidance, events and Grants Programme. 

At the University I also visited the office of the Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine (JSTM) and met with my counterpart, Midori Fukuda. We had some time to talk about some of our shared work and interests of the societies, as well as our shared challenges. 

During the meetings in Tokyo I had a few opportunities to discuss ways that RSTMH and the Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine (JSTM) could work more closely together. Both societies have been established for a number of decades and have many activities in common, including publishing scientific journals and supporting members in tropical medicine careers. 
 

Following that visit I travelled back to Tokyo to take part in the Global Health Joint Conference at the University of Tokyo. This conference was attended by more than 3,000 people and combined the congresses of the 64th Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine, the 38th Japanese Society for Global Health, the 27th Japanese Society of Travel Medicine, and the 8th International Clinical Medicine Academic Meeting. 

RSTMH had a stand at the Conference, shared with the Nagasaki University DTMH&H and other courses. It was a great opportunity to speak to a large number of diverse attendees from medical students, early career researchers, senior clinicians and academics, social scientists. The conversations were very varied and my hope is that many more people will get to know RSTMH and see if there are ways we may be able to help their careers. 

We delivered a seminar for early career researchers in partnership with Nagasaki University and had a panel of interesting researchers and clinicians who are based in Japan and have had very different career journeys in terms of their courses, funding, publications and roles. We heard about their career journeys and also their advice on how they made decisions along the way, the turning points, successes and challenges and how they managed them. I also had the opportunity to talk about RSTMH and about the ways in which we support those early in their careers, including the Early Career Grants Programme. 

Pictured above (from left) with Dr Nathaniel Lee, PHD fellow with Nagasaki University and LSHTM joint PHD programme for Global Health, Dr Thant Zin Tun, Nagasaki University, Dr Sumire Sorano, Nagasaki University and LSHTM, Dr Laura Barbieri, Osaka Metropolitan University; IFReC, Osaka University, Dr Lisa Yamasaki, National Center for Global health and Medicine and The University of Tokyo, Professor Koya Arioshi, Nagasaki University, co-Chair Professor Chris Smith, Director of the Nagasaki Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene course at the Nagasaki University, Institute of Tropical Medicine, myself and Dr Su Myat Han, Nagasaki University.  

Following the end of the conference I travelled to the National Centre for Global Health and Medicine to understand how the centre operates and to meet some of the key personnel and faculty. Hosted by Professor Shigeyuki Kano we had a full tour of the facilities and learned about the history of the centre and its role in crisis health work such as during covid-19 and also about its long term work with communities. 

As part of the visit to the Centre I was very lucky to meet with the President of NCGM - Professor Norihiro Kokudo, to hear about his career and the Centre.  Pictured above (right) with me, Professor Chris Smith and Professor Shigeyuki Kano (left) 

During the visit we also had the opportunity to meet with the Director General of the Research Institute, Professor Hiroyuki Mitsuya. In 1985, Professor Mitsuya’s research demonstrated that azidothymidine (AZT) had potent anti-HIV activity in vitro, and based on this AZT was selected for clinical trials and established as the first drug for AIDS therapy. He also conducted research which led to new drugs coming into clinical use for HIV. He is pictured below with myself, Professor Chris Smith and Professor Shigeyuki Kano.