• Anthony Serracino-Inglott, Lilian M. Azzopardi, Maurice Zarb Adami, Louise Azzopardi and Alison Anastasi from the Pharmacy Department attended the 2008 World Conference of Pharmacy in Basel earlier this month where they presented their joint research work on various topics including chronopharmacology, emergency pharmacy services, hypertension and kidney disease, alcohol use and abuse, community pharmacy prescribing and antibiotic use in medical wards.

Research work on gastric amylase, which is carried out in collaboration with Godfrey Laferla, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and head of Department of Surgery, was also presented to the congress.

The academic staff were invited to a special meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association where they had the opportunity to explore with American pharmacy leaders and academics and the US pharmacy education accreditation body the possibility of running a professional doctorate in Pharmacy jointly with a US prestigious university.

• Joseph Eynaud, Gerald Bugeja and Adrian Stivala recently presented research work on Italo-Maltese literary and historical studies at the XVIII congress of the International Association of Italian Professors (AIPI) held at the University of Oviedo, Spain.

The theme of the congress was La Penisola Iberica e l'Italia: Rapporti Storico-culturali, Linguistici e Letterari. The congress was attended by scholars of Italian studies from the EU and other including the USA, Brazil, Japan, and Canada.

Keynote speakers were Raffaele Pinto of Barcellona University who spoke on 'L'Insegnamento Online della Letteratura Comparata', the Italian writer Giuliana Morandini, and Vincente González Martín.