Farmasian Grand Old Men

Farmasian Grand Old Men

1973 – Early days in the Department of Pharmacy

In September of 1973, Mauno Airaksinen, Hannu and Liisa Turakka and a very young, inexperienced Ewen MacDonald travelled from Helsinki to the fledgling University of Kuopio (although in Finnish, the name was Kuopion Korkeakoulu). We were met by Eila Turunen, who would be the department’s first laboratory assistant.

We were very much a group of pioneers, plunging into rather unknown territory, especially with respect to pharmacology. It was only at the start of the 1970s that pharmacy teaching in the University of Helsinki had started to include pharmacology – up until then students had only had the possibility to study pharmaceutical technology and chemistry as well as pharmacognosy.

While it was a unique opportunity to start with almost a carte blanche – it was also a huge challenge. What would we teach the first batch of pharmacy students? Obviously, not just basic pharmacology, but also advanced concepts like biochemical neuropharmacology, toxicology (a science then in its infancy) as well as a wide spectrum of pharmacological research techniques including several of the biological assays described in Pharmacopea Nordica.

We were fortunate that during these years when the department was developing from being a stumbling toddler to a pre-schooler, the pharmacy students were not only extremely clever but also had a good sense of humour that allowed them to cope with our inevitable mistakes. Judging by the fact that so many of them have enjoyed illustrious careers in the worlds of academia and pharmacy (not least, the Mayor of the City of Kuopio), it seems that the education they received was not a complete waste of time! Even in those early days of 1973, despite the long hours of teaching, and then evenings planning the following day’s teaching, high quality research was being done in the department – its first publication appeared in 1974 in the prestigious Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology.

Ewen MacDonald