Apothecary 2020

Dr Jeremy Howick, John Locke Lecturer, and Dr Andrew Papanikitas,
Deputy President and Philosophy Course Director
the History Diploma course who gave the best Test
Lecture. Dr Parker's lecture was titled “Rediscovering a
local surgical pioneer: the life and work of Judson
Chesterman.” He was also the recipient on that evening
of the annual Maccabaean Prize and Medal for the best
dissertation, the first time that one person has won both
awards.
The remaining 4 lectures from this year's programme
have been re-scheduled alongside the existing 2020-21
academic year's programme. We look forward to
hearing a stimulating range of talks from an
examination of sex versus gender identity in the General
Medical Council’s Transgender Healthcare Ethical
Guidance from Dr Sara Dahlen, to Dr Michael Brown on
Surgery and Emotion Before Anaesthesia, and a History
of Peyote given by Mike Jay.
The two annual courses have attracted healthy
student numbers, but unfortunately, the 3-day course
on the History of Medicine and the Students' Course on
the History of Medicine both had to be cancelled due to
the pandemic. Both the History and Philosophy Fellows'
groups have gone from strength to strength with many
members enjoying virtual meetings in recent months,
and a well-attended joint symposium on the medical
marketplace held on Zoom in June 2020.
The Faculty Manager and members of Court
continued to visit medical schools including Imperial
College, Queen Mary, University of London and St
George’s University of London (SGUL), in order to
engage students with the Society and its courses and
prizes. Student engagement continues to be a focus this
year and we appointed Shahi Ghani from SGUL as the
first holder of a new Student Ambassador role, to
strengthen student links with the Executive Committee
and the wider Faculty.
We were pleased to receive applications for 4 new
Apothecaries' Lecturers during the year, and welcome
Andrew Papanikitas, Clare Button, Carwyn Hooper and
Terence Doyle. Further nominations are also due to be
considered by the Court. We held a very successful
Zoom meeting of Apothecaries' Lecturers in May 2020,
including those in Australia and New Zealand, proving
that the technological developments foisted upon us by
the pandemic restrictions have definite silver linings.
Arts panel discussion at the International Women's Day event: L-R Nidhi
Gupta, Bev Thomas, Sybil H Mair, Maria Thomas
It was obviously a great disappointment to have to
postpone the majority of our special events to mark the
Faculty's 60 th anniversary year. We were very pleased to
be able to run the planned International Women's Day
event in early March with a group of 10 fascinating
women speakers in the fields of history, the arts and the
sciences. Thank you to Jon Baines Tours for their
sponsorship of the drinks reception at this event and
others in our programme. Sadly all other anniversary
events had to be postponed. We look forward to belated
celebrations during 2020-21. However, the Diamond
Patrons' Fund has been extremely well supported and a
very big thank you to all of our patrons who have
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