Health Sciences Education Center inaugurated at SZTE

In recent years, the building erected in 1929 has undergone complete renovation and functional transformation so that now the 10,000 square metre complex combines tradition with the latest 21st century technology. It enables the students, lecturers, resident doctors and specialists, future and current health professionals of the university to learn about cutting-edge technologies in graduate, post-graduate and specialty training in a state-of-the-art environment and it provides a venue for training and research activities that are unique in the region. The new centre will have a significant impact on all three of the university's core missions, bringing together the innovative threads of education, research and medicine.

The Rector of the university, Prof. László Rovó, highlighted that the building of the former Department of Surgery, which now houses the Education Centre, is a legendary place of medical education. Over the past almost one hundred years, pioneering operations have been performed here, including the first kidney transplantation in Hungary.

The Education Centre was named after Ilona Banga, who was born in Hódmezővásárhely in 1906. She studied at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Szeged, and returned to the university after studying abroad to become the number one assistant and colleague of Albert Szent-Györgyi. She played an important role in research on the process of biological oxidation, which was later awarded the Nobel Prize. Ilona Banga and Albert Szent-Györgyi also worked together on the discovery of actin, a protein that makes up muscles. Ilona Banga studied connective tissue fibres and their function, and together with her husband she discovered elastase and elastase inhibitor in the blood. Prof. László Rovó noted that the areas of her research would be carried on at the university, and the building that has just been opened is one the means to do so.

Ilona Banga's son was also present at the official opening ceremony. He spoke about his relationship with his mother and the turning points and difficulties of her career as a research professor. He donated some very special personal belongings from her estate to the University of Szeged including handwritten letters between Albert Szent-Györgyi and Ilona Banga.

Judit Fendler, the Chancellor of university, said that so far the University of Szeged had been the only university in Hungary without a purpose-built education centre. Now a world-class building has been created, which is combines tradition and innovation; one that used to be visited by Ilona Banga and Albert Szent-Györgyi, yet now meets the expectations of the 21st century. Among other things, the centre now houses skill units, teaching spaces, functional areas for small group work, laboratories for research and community spaces. The 7-storey building gives home to simulated operating rooms, cadaveric simulation and an emergency theatre (simulation ambulance). These multifunctional spaces and further simulation rooms equipped with high-tech interactive patient simulators allow practical skills training to be held in simulation environments. The technology systems of the building will allow the recording and evaluation of practical training sessions, so that students will be able to follow the interventions in the simulation operating theatres while sitting in the seminar rooms.

In addition to the skill development facilities, the centre also serves for theoretical education, with seminar rooms available for use by all faculties concerned. The basement of the building houses technical building services, as well as the operation and maintenance area. The ground floor serves as a student community centre with an assembly hall, lobby and café. The academic offices of the Medical School and a 188-seat lecture hall are located on the mezzanine floor. The higher floors of the building house laboratories and animal research facilities. The IT solutions applied in the building are exceptional with broadband WiFi and data transmission network, expanded storage capacity, e-learning course materials, secure interfaces, interactive digital tools and high-tech medical and health technology equipment.