Floral-flag plots honor Canada and the United States at the International Peace Garden.

It started as a way for two rather remote anatomy departments to get their students and faculty together to learn what one another were doing. Now it is an annual tradition between The University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and the University of Manitoba Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Science that has encouraged not only research but friendship.  

Ed Carlson, PhD ’70, had been chair of The UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ anatomy department for three years when he met the chair of Manitoba’s department, Vid Persaud, MD, DSc, PhD, FRCP, FRCPI, in 1984. Later that summer, Carlson invited

Persaud and his department to Grand Forks for an Anatomy Interchange. They agreed to do the exchange at least twice, the first year at UND, the second year at Manitoba. The two departments have been meeting nearly every fall ever since. 

The start of a tradition
That first meeting was very much like the meetings that have followed. The 40-some participants started first thing in the morning with a series of 15–20 minute talks by the faculty and students of both departments. It also included one longer talk by a keynote speaker.  

“We had a morning of science,” remembered Carlson. “This was plowing the ground. We had never done this before.”

Participants were free to explore the host university and city during the afternoon and finished the day with a barbecue at a faculty member’s home. This seemingly benign activity has become essential to the event’s continued success.

“What that did was change a scientific meeting into what we call a ‘biosocialization event,’” said Carlson. “We got to know them on a whole different level than we would have just by going to a scientific conference.”

“It’s difficult to find meetings these days where you can actually meet in the backyard of someone’s house and enjoy yourself after you’ve had a day of research,” said Manitoba’s current department chair, Tom Klonisch, MD, PhD. “It creates a very friendly atmosphere.”

There have been some slight changes to the event over the years. In the mid ’90s they added poster sessions so more students could participate. Some years the keynote speaker has been a more well-known, national figure rather than a member of one of the departments.  

Carlson says the meeting has continued this long because the chairs have supported it. Klonisch became chair of the department at Manitoba just a month before the 2004 meeting, and he saw no reason why it shouldn’t continue.

“This creates a platform for students and faculty to perform, to show and present the data, to engage in scientific discussions,” he said. “These are very lively discussions. It is quite an unusual meeting … it is quite informal, it really leaves time to discuss research at posters or after talks.”