Bulletins
-
2006
-
05/03/2006
This
Week's Bulletin Was Written By
Tom Sayer
Today was Vocational
Services Day, but we only have
this report from the Salk Institute:
Kathleen Murray guided us on a wonderful tour
of the Salk Institute. Kathleen
has been with the Institute for
eighteen years and personally
worked with Jonas Salk.
With the aid of the March of Dimes
and following his success with
curing polio, Dr. Salk created
a basic biological research center
and chose Torrey Pines in San
Diego as
the site. He worked with
friend and famous architect Louis
Kahn to create the original two
buildings in 1967. Even
today, many architects and architectural
students come to the Institute
to study and marvel over what
is considered to be an architectural
masterpiece. (For more information
on Louis Kahn, you can rent his
son Nathaniel’s acclaimed
documentary called “My Architect.”)
The Salk Institute
is a non-profit and self-funded
institute of scientists researching
cures for diseases such as cancer
and AIDS. They also expect
their stem-cell research to expand.
The Institute is also researching
plant biology, with the goal of
helping crops grow in difficult
geographical areas and in countries
where there are food shortages.
Over breakfast, Kathleen
shared with us what it was like
to work with Dr. Salk. She
described him as a very warm and
caring man, who would always greet
others at the Institute and would
take the time to talk to anyone
from the public who called in
to suggest an idea for a cure
or to simply talk because they
had a loved one dying of cancer
or AIDS. We also had a chance
to walk through one of the labs
used by Dr. Renato Dulbecco, a
Nobel Prize winner, who is researching
a cure for cancer. Today,
the Salk Institute is the most
cited scientific research institute
in the world.
Kathleen acknowledged
the great work that Rotary does,
especially in its fight against
polio, and noted that Dr. Salk
had predicted that polio would
continue to threaten without continuing
efforts to vaccinate.
For more about the
Salk Institute, you can go to
its website at www.salk.edu. You
are welcome to walk the grounds
at any time during business hours,
Monday through Friday. You
can also see the San Diego symphony play there
in August. The Institute
has also hosted our District’s
Foundation Seminars. On
the steps of the entrance to the
marble plaza and in memory of
Dr. Salk is written one of his
quotes: “Hope lies
in dreams, in imagination and
in the courage of those who dare
to make dreams into realty.”
