Maria Issa, Past President

Maria Gyongyossy-Issa is a “seasoned” member of Pathology who has long enjoyed teaching anyone from kindergarten kids to PhD students and Residents and all comers in between.  Though she started in Microbiology at UBC, she went on to her PhD in immunology with Ivan Roitt (London UK) and was the first to describe antigen receptors on T cells. She skied in Switzerland and France while doing biochemistry (complement) and blood (apoptosis), then moved to Saskatchewan to work on the biological warfare agent, T2 toxin. Finally, in Vancouver, she raised a family while working on platelets with CBS, then UBC’s Centre for Blood Research. In between, she taught biochemistry for CIDA in Indonesia, mounted courses for Douglas College, created Science World’s “Opening the Doors” science networking program, taught Summer Science to Northern kids, fell in love with med students and PBL. As a Black Belt instructor, she also teaches TaeKwonDo for UBC Rec. Her motto is Emmanuel Kant’s dictum “Dare to find out!”