A Life with Yeast Molecular Biology - Prof. Dr. Horst Feldmann

308
H. FELDMANN
Administration and Teaching Medical Students
In 1967, when we had moved to Munich, for some period of time I
was to take care of all kinds of administrative business: purchase
and maintenance of equipment, accounting, etc. One task that
met my interests was to keep liaison with the university building
department, which had begun to raise an eight-storey new
institute in our courtyard that should offer more space to the
two new chairs of biochemistry (see Ref. [144]) and physiology.
Theodor Bücher, who initially was the only head of the institute
of physiological chemistry, in his negotiations with the Bavarian
Ministry of Science had accomplished that three new departments
were created. Though we could improve some internal facilities
during the construction of the new building (such as lab
equipment, isotope labs) we were not able to prevent serious
mistakes that are still persistent despite many necessary and
costly repair over the years. For my part I was happy to move into
a new lab and a well-equipped isotope lab in 1971.
All the years I worked at the Institute of Physiological
Chemistry in Munich, I had to look after the training of medical
students at several levels. These teaching obligations and the
administrative loads connected with them were greatly put on the
shoulders of the ‘‘younger’’ staff, because most of the professors
preferred to concentrate on giving the general lectures.
One of my first activities was to organize a serious practical
course in biochemistry, setting up reasonable experiments. The
most intriguing problem was to develop a fixed schedule to hurry
so many students through these venues within the minimal time
of four terms: logistics had to consider subject and number of
students as well as time, space, and staff available, in other words
the time-table had to be strictly non-overlapping for each
individual. Whoever has encountered such a demand, knows
quite well that it can hardly be solved by computer programs.
With my colleague Joachim Otto from the neighboring department
we managed to develop a ‘‘master-plan’’ which was followed
through 25 years. In 1974, the faculty entrusted me with the coordination
of pre-clinical education and I had to chair the
meetings of a committee consisting of representatives from every
discipline, university administration, and examination board. In
the beginning this task took much of my time, but in the end the
meetings had to take place only twice a year.