Dear first-year medical student, dear future colleague!

On behalf of my colleagues I congratulate you on having been admitted to our university and greet you warmly as you are to commence your studies here in September. I am well aware that in the last few months you have been given several pieces of good advice by your teachers, parents, friends and relatives so that you feel properly armed to start your university studies. In the weeks or months to come, you can expect more advice, as the calling you have chosen is hard to master and learning demands patience, discipline, interest, diligence and abnegation. We who are to help you in your studies should like to be efficient in sharing with you the knowledge you will need.

All of us who are to instruct you try to draw your attention to the importance and utility of our respective fields. Medical physics, statistics and informatics are no exception. Advances in technology and the information revolution have opened up innumerable new possibilities in medicine, but these demand capable experts. For this reason, I ask you to come to terms with the thought that you must also study physics, statistics and informatics (and probably not even on a secondary-school level). At the same time, we are aware that for many of you these fields were neglected: little time was devoted to physics, mathematics or informatics and the marking was not too strict either. I cannot but advise you that it is never too late to recapitulate, re-read and re-learn secondary-school material. Believe me when I say: sound knowledge in life sciences can only be built on firm foundations in mathematics and physics.

You have the time; find the inclination and heed this advice.
Hoping that our joint efforts will be fruitful, I congratulate you again; in what remains of the summer, get some rest and use well the days.

Yours faithfully
Prof. Ferenc Bari
professor, head of institute