Gong Ju
Fourth Military Medical University, China
Biography
Born 1929 in Shanghai in an intellectual family. My father held the idea of “Save our country with medicine”, which determined my live as a student of medical school and a scientist in medical field.
In 1953 I was recruited by People’s Liberation Army to be a teacher in Dept. of Anatomy of the Fourth Military Medical University, a school just established and located in Xi’an, a very back-woods city. The university had little, if any, research facilities. In the Dept. of Anatomy there was only one old Zeiss bronze monocular microscope, probably a little better than the one Cajal had used. I was the only one in Dept. of Anatomy who knew Neuroanatomy. Hodology is an important research field in Neuroanatomy , the best tracing technique was Nauta’s staining invented in mid-50’s. I am the first one in China who mastered this technique and published a paper in early 90’s in Journal of Anatomy (Chinese), then the best journal in China available. Then came a national turmoil of so called “Cultural Revolution”which revolved all cultures away. We were forbidden to do scientific research, even not allowed to go to libraries. The “Cultural Revolution” was finally proved a conspiracy and was crushed down in 1986. It spoiled 20 of by best years.