JAPOHR scholarship student letter. Dr Demet Part 1

Japan is always special to me in a lot of sense. For instance, this was the first foreign county outside of the Philippines where I visited. I was first here way back in 2002 as a JICA trainee in Hokkaido. My training was all about basic laboratory procedures and research.

I do not know anything about research and how to operate laboratory equipment, even the simplest machine. However, I can say that during my training I discovered what I really wanted to do in life and that is to do experiments and research in general.



As a child, I am always amazed by science and sometimes do experiments for
fun. I returned home happy and contented with what I learned from Japan. However, as I advanced in my career back home, my responsibility shifted more on management, administrative work and other things that come with my position. Coming back here as a PhD student, I rediscovered my passion for science and my love for Japan. I am a little old to be just starting my PhD but the curiosity and love for discovery as a child stays with me and will never grow old.


However, my purpose of coming back here is a little more important than before and the reason for this is a disease called rabies. In my home country,
this disease takes away around 200-300 lives annually. Most of the victims did not seek medical attention immediately for some reason. I am assuming that some of them did not know that the dog that bit them have rabies. Had they known that the dog had rabies, perhaps they would have taken the situation seriously. This gap in diagnosis is one of the many gaps that Oita University is trying to fill in, and as a student and a collaborator, I am happy to be given the chance to contribute to this noble cause.