The First Formally Qualified Nutritionists in Malaysia, 1966

How Professor Jason S. T. Teoh and Dr Lim Ju Boo Carried the Seeds of Modern Nutrition from the University of London to Malaysia

By  Lim Ju Boo

Some journeys begin with a passport.

Others begin with a seed.

More than sixty years ago, two young Malaysians travelled to Britain to study a subject that had scarcely become a recognised profession in their homeland: nutrition.

They returned in 1966 carrying far more than academic qualifications. They brought home the scientific knowledge, methods and philosophy of modern nutrition and helped plant the early seeds from which the profession of nutrition in Malaysia would eventually grow.

They were Professor Dr Jason S. T. Teoh, who later became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, and Dr Lim Ju Boo, who joined the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), Kuala Lumpur.

Their story began in London.

When Nutrition Was Not Yet a Profession

It is difficult for young nutritionists today to imagine a time when nutrition was not yet firmly established as a professional discipline in Malaysia.

In the early 1960s, nutrition was still largely regarded as an adjunct to medicine, dietetics, food science and public health. There were few people in the country who had undergone specialised university training in nutrition itself.

The distinction between a nutritionist, dietitian, food scientist and health adviser was not always clearly understood.

Food manufacturing was also developing rapidly, but scientific food regulation was still in its formative years. Questions concerning food additives, preservatives, colouring substances, microbiological safety, food composition and health claims were increasingly demanding scientific expertise.

There was therefore a growing need for people who understood food and nutrition not simply as practical subjects, but as scientific disciplines based upon biochemistry, physiology, medicine, public health and research.

That was the environment into which the first generation of formally trained Malaysian nutritionists returned from Britain.

Queen Elizabeth College — Where the Seeds Were Planted

The story leads back to Queen Elizabeth College (QEC), University of London, which became one of the important centres in the development of academic nutrition.

Under Professor John Yudkin, nutrition was studied as a rigorous scientific discipline rather than merely as dietary advice.

Students were exposed to the biochemical, physiological and clinical foundations of human nutrition, nutritional deficiency diseases, public health, food science and research.

It was a remarkable development for its time.

Students from different parts of the world came to London to receive this new form of academic training and then returned to their own countries.

Among them were students from Southeast Asia, India, Norway, Canada and Nigeria.

The seeds were being scattered far beyond Britain.

The Historic Photograph — Queen Elizabeth College, 1965–1966

There is one photograph that has become particularly precious to me because it preserves a moment from the beginning of this journey.

The photograph is preserved in the King's College London Archives and records the postgraduate nutrition class at Queen Elizabeth College in 1965–66.

 

In the photograph, I am standing at the extreme left of the back row.

Seated in the centre of the front row is Professor John Yudkin, the distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College and one of the important pioneers in establishing nutrition as an academic scientific discipline.

Immediately in front of me, in the second row, is Professor A. E. Bender, one of the distinguished nutrition scientists and teachers associated with Queen Elizabeth College.

At the time, we were simply a professor and his students.

Looking back more than sixty years later, the photograph represents something much greater.

It records a generation of young scientists standing at the threshold of a new era in nutrition—people who would eventually carry the knowledge acquired in Britain back to their own countries.

For me personally, it is a photograph of the beginning of my own journey in nutrition and, ultimately, my return to Malaysia in 1966.

The original photograph can be viewed in the King's College London Archives here:

https://kingscollections.org/exhibitions/archives/studentdays/queen-elizabeth-college/galleries/queen-elizabeth-college-1953-1985#Gallery[gallery1]/28/

King's College London Archives — Queen Elizabeth College, 1965–66 Postgraduate Nutrition Class

The original archival photograph should remain unaltered. My position is identified here by description rather than by drawing a circle over the historical image.

The Two Malaysian Pioneers

While I was studying nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College under Professor John Yudkin, Dr Jason S. T. Teoh was pursuing postgraduate nutrition training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) under Professor Benjamin Stanley Platt, another major figure in British nutrition science.

Thus, although we studied at different London institutions and under different professors, we were both receiving advanced academic training in nutrition within the University of London system.

We returned to Malaysia in 1966.

It was the beginning of an important chapter in Malaysian nutrition.

Professor Dr Jason S. T. Teoh

Professor Jason S. T. Teoh was a medical doctor who returned to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya.

He subsequently rose to become Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya.

His contribution was particularly important because nutrition was then still closely connected with medicine, public health and the prevention of nutritional diseases.

Through medical education, nutrition could reach generations of doctors and health professionals.

Professor Teoh therefore became one of the important early Malaysians bringing formally trained nutrition knowledge into the medical education system.

Dr Lim Ju Boo at the Institute for Medical Research

I returned to Malaysia in 1966 and joined the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), Kuala Lumpur, at the invitation of Dr Chong Yoon Hin, who headed the Nutrition Division.

The IMR was already an institution with a strong scientific tradition and a group of dedicated researchers.

Dr Chong Yoon Hin was a distinguished biochemist with a PhD from the University of London. Mrs Ruth Lim, who had been seconded from Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, served as Nutrition Officer and brought valuable dietetic experience to the Division.

They had already contributed significantly to nutrition work in Malaysia.

My role was therefore not to begin nutrition research from nothing, but to bring specialised academic nutrition training into an institution where nutrition research was already developing.

I became the first IMR officer in 1968 with also an applied  MSc degree in Food Quality Control from the University of Reading in England together with a  formal postgraduate diploma specifically in nutrition from the University of London.

From Nutrition Research to Food Standards

My work at IMR eventually extended beyond nutritional research.

I became involved in technical work concerning food standards, serving on committees associated with the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) on behalf of the Ministry of Health.

At that time, Malaysia was developing the scientific and regulatory framework needed to control the quality and safety of manufactured foods.

This required collaboration between nutritionists, chemists, microbiologists, medical scientists, food technologists and government authorities.

Nutrition was therefore beginning to expand beyond the study of nutrients and deficiency diseases.

It was becoming part of a much larger scientific system concerned with food quality, food safety, public health and national food regulation.

Helping to Establish the Nutrition Society of Malaysia

Another important development was the formation of the Nutrition Society of Malaysia.

Working with Dr Chong Yoon Hin, I was involved in helping establish the Society, which subsequently developed under successive councils and generations of nutrition professionals.

The Society provided a professional platform through which nutritionists could exchange scientific information, organise meetings and promote the advancement of nutrition science in Malaysia.

What had once been a small and emerging academic discipline was gradually becoming a recognised profession.

The Seeds Spread Across Southeast Asia

The story did not end in Malaysia.

The small postgraduate community at Queen Elizabeth College represented an international network of young nutrition scientists.

Dr Shim Kim Fah, from Singapore, was among the students who studied in this academic tradition. He subsequently obtained his PhD in Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College and became a professor in Singapore.

A young Thai woman, the daughter of the Thai Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was also among the postgraduate students and subsequently returned to Thailand.

Students from India, Norway, Canada, Nigeria and other countries similarly carried their knowledge home.

Thus the influence of the London nutrition programmes extended far beyond Britain.

The seeds travelled.

From Two Students to a National Profession

When Professor Jason Teoh and I returned to Malaysia in 1966, neither of us could have known how far the discipline would eventually develop.

There were no large departments of nutrition comparable with those that exist today.

There was no large community of university-trained nutritionists.

There was little public understanding of nutrition as an independent scientific profession.

Yet the foundations were being laid.

One person taught.

Another conducted research.

Another developed food standards.

Another educated doctors.

Another organised professional activities.

Gradually, these separate efforts became part of something much larger.

That is how scientific disciplines are born—not overnight, but through the accumulated work of many people over many years.

A Small Photograph, a Large History

When I look today at the old photograph from Queen Elizabeth College, I see much more than my younger self standing at the extreme left of the back row.

I see Professor John Yudkin sitting in the centre of the front row.

I see Professor A. E. Bender immediately in front of me.

I see fellow postgraduate students from different countries.

And I see a generation about to return home carrying knowledge that had been developed in Britain.

We did not know then what the future would bring.

We were simply students studying nutrition.

But history sometimes begins quietly.

A classroom.

A teacher.

A group of students.

A qualification.

And then a journey home.

Carrying the Seeds Across Generations

Looking back more than six decades later, I realise that the journey from London was never simply about obtaining a diploma.

It was about carrying seeds.

Seeds of scientific thinking.

Seeds of evidence-based nutrition.

Seeds of research.

Seeds of professional education.

Seeds of food standards and public health.

Those seeds were carried from Britain to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and many other countries.

They were planted by different people in different institutions.

And over the decades, they grew into the profession of nutrition that exists today.

The young man standing at the extreme left of that old photograph could never have imagined that, sixty years later, he would still be writing about it.

But perhaps that is the nature of science.

A scientist plants a seed of knowledge without knowing how far its roots will travel or how many generations will eventually live beneath its shade.

A Historical Record for Future Generations

This article is therefore not intended merely as a recollection of my own career.

It is a small historical record of the early development of academic nutrition in Malaysia.

The two Malaysian pioneers who returned from Britain in 1966 were:

Professor Dr Jason S. T. Teoh

· Medical doctor

· Advanced nutrition training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

· Subsequently Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya

· Important early contributor to the development of nutrition within Malaysian medical education

Dr Lim Ju Boo

· Postgraduate nutrition student at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, 1965–66

· Returned to Malaysia in 1966

· Joined the Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur

· Involved in nutrition research and food-standard development

· Served on pioneering SIRIM technical committees concerning food standards

· Involved in the establishment of the Nutrition Society of Malaysia

· Participated in collaborative nutrition work involving the Ministry of Health, IMR and WHO

Their paths were different.

But the destination was the same:

to bring modern scientific nutrition home to Malaysia.

Epilogue — The Seeds Are Still Growing

The Queen Elizabeth College photograph belongs to another era.

The buildings have changed.

The students have grown old.

Some are no longer with us.

But the knowledge continues.

Universities continue to teach nutrition.

Researchers continue to investigate food and health.

Hospitals continue to employ nutrition professionals.

Public-health programmes continue to promote better nutrition.

Food industries continue to depend upon scientific standards.

And young nutritionists continue the work begun by generations before them.

That is perhaps the greatest legacy of all.

The people in that photograph have passed through time, but the seeds they carried have not.

They continue to grow.

And that is the story of how a small group of students at Queen Elizabeth College helped carry the seeds of modern nutrition across the world—and how two of them brought those seeds home to Malaysia.

Dr Lim Ju Boo
Formerly, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur

Carrying Seeds of Nutrition from the University of London to Build the Nutrition Profession Across Malaysia, Singapore and Beyond

 

Carrying Seeds from the University of London

How One of the Earliest Southeast Asian Cohorts Helped Build the Nutrition Profession Across Malaysia, hopefully in  Singapore and Beyond 

A personal memoir of Queen Elizabeth College, Professor John Yudkin, IMR, SIRIM, the Nutrition Society of Malaysia, and a lifetime devoted to public health.

Queen Elizabeth College, University of London—the birthplace of modern academic nutrition for one of Southeast Asia's earliest university-trained nutritionists.

Some Journeys Begin with a Passport

Some journeys begin with a passport.

Others begin with a seed.

Mine began at Queen Elizabeth College (QEC), University of London, where Professor John Yudkin trained one of the world's earliest generations of academically qualified nutritionists.

He held a string of highly admirable academic and professional degrees

1. BSc: Bachelor of Science from London (1929)

2. BA & MA: Bachelor of Arts (1931) and Master of Arts (1934) from Cambridge

3. PhD: Doctor of Philosophy from Cambridge (1935) in biochemistry

4. MB BChir: Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (1938), University of London

5. MD: Doctor of Medicine (1943) from University of Cambridge

Professional Fellowships and Memberships

1.FRSC: Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1938, formerly FRIC)

2. MRCP & FRCP: Member (1946) and Fellow (1975) of the Royal College of Physicians

3. FIBiol: Fellow of the Institute of Biology (1958)

He was not just a very world-renown nutritionist, but he was the Chair of Physiology first at QEC before he became the Chair of Nutrition later. He was not an ordinary doctor, but a medical  specialist, a chemist and a biologist at the same time. 

Looking back after more than half a century, I realise that we were not simply students. We were carrying seeds—seeds of science, public health and professional nutrition—that would later take root in Malaysia, Singapore and beyond.

What began as an overseas scholarship eventually became a lifetime devoted to building institutions, shaping standards, and protecting public health.

When Nutrition Had No Profession

It is difficult for young nutritionists today to imagine the world we returned to in the 1960s.

Food manufacturers could add preservatives, colourings and flavourings with few controls. Health claims appeared on labels with little scientific scrutiny. People attended short hotel courses and called themselves nutritionists. Chemists often performed work that today belongs to food microbiologists and food quality controllers trained in multi-disciplinary of science, while dietitians were frequently asked to function as nutritionists because no formally trained specialists existed.

Nutrition had not yet become a recognised profession.

That was the world awaiting us when we returned home.

A Remarkable Classroom in London

Under Professor John Yudkin, Queen Elizabeth College pioneered the academic study of human nutrition by integrating biochemistry, physiology, public health, food science among other areas.

Our education extended beyond university lectures. Since Prof John Yudkin was also a specialist physician, we were thoroughly drilled in clinical nutrition how to recognize and diagnose nutritional deficiency diseases and how to conduct differential diagnosis from other diseases.  For that we also attended teaching sessions and clinical observations in several London hospitals, where we studied nutritional deficiency diseases as they presented in real patients. Conditions such as kwashiorkor, marasmus, rickets, pellagra, scurvy and anaemia were not merely textbook descriptions—they became living lessons that linked laboratory science with clinical medicine.

Those clinical teaching sessions were augmented with slides taken from clinical cases in Yemen and certain African countries. Very few universities in the world that could do that. Those hospital experiences helped shape my conviction that nutrition was never simply about food. It was about preventing human suffering.

In our small postgraduate class during the 1960s were four students who would later carry that knowledge across Southeast Asia.

The first four formally qualified nutritionists were: 

1. The Late Professor Dr Jason S. T. Teoh (Malaysia) — later Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. He studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that ran the same parallel course by the University of London under Professor Dr Benjamin Stanley Platt 

2. Dr Lim Ju Boo (Malaysia) - initially with MIT before joining the Institute for Medical Research and SIRIM 

3.Professor Dr Shim Kim Fah (Singapore) — later obtained his PhD in Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College and became Professor at the University of Singapore.

• 4. A young woman from Thailand — the daughter of the Thai Ambassador to the United Kingdom, representing another early pioneer of nutrition in Thailand.

Together, we represented one of the earliest Southeast Asian cohorts trained in this academic tradition.

Professor Jason Teoh and I became the first two Malaysians to obtain formal postgraduate qualifications in Nutrition from the University of London.

None of us imagined then that our classroom would become the starting point of a regional story.

Both, Professor Dr Jason ST Teoh and myself were the first two Malaysians who underwent a formally structured university course in nutrition in 1965 from the University of London. It was much later that Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia - UKM (National University of Malaysia) started to produce the first batch of graduates in nutrition in 1989 after UKM invited Prof Dr AE Bender from QEC to Malaysia how to start the program. 

Returning Home to Build Something That Did Not Yet Exist

When I joined the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), I entered an institution already rich with dedicated scientists.

Dr Chong Yoon Hin headed the Division of Nutrition at IMR as a distinguished biochemist with a PhD from the University of London. Mrs Ruth Lim served as Nutrition Officer after being seconded from Kuala Lumpur General Hospital as a dietitian.

Both made invaluable contributions.

Yet there was still no officer whose formal postgraduate qualification was specifically in Nutrition. I saw Dr Chong and he strongly encouraged me to join him.  

To the best of my knowledge, I became the first officer appointed to IMR with a formal postgraduate qualification in Nutrition from the University of London, working alongside Dr Chong - as nutrition research began taking a more specialised scientific direction.

Research Before Recognition

Our work extended across many fields of health research.

We conducted some of Malaysia's early nutrition surveys, analysed the nutrient composition of Malaysian foods, investigated community health problems, and contributed scientific evidence that would later shape national policy.

Those laboratory results did not remain inside journals.

They became foundations for public health.

Building Food Standards Before Food Laws

One of the most important chapters unfolded not inside laboratories but inside committee rooms.

Representing the Ministry of Health and IMR, I served on the expert technical committee of the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM).

Around those tables sat chemists, manufacturers, government officers and scientists.

There were no comprehensive food laws yet.

Instead, we debated the science itself.

At SIRIM in the 1960's we examined food composition, preservatives, additives, labelling requirements and manufacturing practices. Those discussions gradually evolved into Malaysia's earliest food standards, many of which later became part of national food legislation.

Looking back, those meetings were where science first learned to become law.

Three Institutions, One Purpose

As the profession matured, three institutions worked together almost like a tripod.

1. IMR produced scientific evidence through research. 

2. SIRIM converted scientific knowledge into technical standards.

3. The Ministry of Health developed inspection systems and enforcement.

Together they transformed food regulation from good intentions into practical public protection.

The Birth of the Nutrition Society of Malaysia

Another important milestone followed.

The Late Dr Chong Yoon Hin then establish the Nutrition Society of Malaysia after I became the founder and first president of the Astronomical Society of Malaysia. He asked me for advice how to set up a nutrition society and its requirements. I then became the pro-term council member advising Dr Chong the legal requirements. The Society became a meeting place for scientists, clinicians, educators and researchers, helping nutrition grow into a recognised academic and professional discipline.

Another seed had taken root.

From Nutrition to National Health Policy

My work at IMR later expanded beyond nutrition itself.

After being transferred to other divisions, I served for six years, until my retirement, on a high-level Joint WHO–Ministry of Health–IMR Technical Expert Committee.

Our task was both scientific and legislative: to examine how Malaysia's traditional medicine and other systems of medicine should be scientifically evaluated, legally recognised, and appropriately integrated into the national healthcare system.

Those discussions took years and each meeting took almost the entire day long before traditional and complementary medicine became legally, officially and socially widely accepted within official health policy.

Once again, I found myself sitting in rooms where scientific evidence, public policy and legislation gradually came together.

It reminded me that research does not end at the laboratory bench. Its greatest influence often begins when evidence enters the policy-making room.

When Standards Became Law

Decades of scientific work by my colleagues and others eventually matured into legislation.

The Food Act 1983 and Food Regulations 1985 made it illegal to sell unsafe food or make misleading health claims.

Much later, the Allied Health Professions Act 2016 (Act 774) gave legal protection to the title Nutritionist, ensuring that only graduates from recognised university programmes could register professionally.

The era of the "hotel certificate nutritionist" was finally over.

A Second Chapter After Retirement

Retirement from IMR did not mean retirement from public service.

I returned to medicine once again in another field. I attended  several  training courses at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Selayang Hospital, and at  the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia on trauma and medical emergency care for first responders. Those extra  training took years that opened another chapter in my life.

I then joined St John Ambulance Malaysia as a Regional Staff Officer, where I continued serving the community through emergency medical services and first-aid education.

Although the setting had changed—from laboratories to ambulances—the purpose remained the same: protecting human life.

Looking Back After Half a Century

When I first entered Queen Elizabeth College as a young Malaysian student in the mid 1960's  I thought I was travelling abroad simply to study nutrition.

Only much later did I realise that we had been entrusted with something much larger.

The seeds planted by Professor John Yudkin travelled home with the first two  Malaysians, a Singaporean and a Thai.  

Those seeds grew into research at IMR.

They grew into food standards at SIRIM.

They grew into the Nutrition Society of Malaysia.

They grew into national food laws.

Finally those seeds spread across the world into beautiful growing plants of nutrition and health. 

Truly, I pay tribute to the Late Professor Dr John Yudkin who was my most respected mentor to whom I would unofficially call him: 

The Father of Nutrition. 

My other experiences serving in policy-making health committees has also helped shape conversations about how traditional, natural and integrative medicine could find its proper place within Malaysia's mainstream  healthcare system.

And they too continue to grow today in their systems of practices -  similar with every qualified nutritionist serving in health-care centres, universities, industries, retail pharmacies or in pharmaceutical companies, and in communities across Southeast Asia. The unemployment rate among qualified nutritionists today I understand is zero. 

Some people build buildings.

Others write books.

We were fortunate enough to plant seeds whose harvest belongs to generations we may never meet.

The seeds of nutrition in this SE Asian region began with  4  pioneering  cohorts at Queen Elizabeth College, London. Those seeds spread across oceans and lands that flourished in hundreds of universities today 61 years years later offering the plant that nourishes the body. 

A small historical record for future generations.

1. Prof Dr Jason S. T. Teoh (Malaysia)

Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya

2. Dr Lim Ju Boo (Malaysia)

First IMR officer with a formal postgraduate qualification in Nutrition from the University of London, served in SIRIM pioneering technical committees on food standards, one of the founders of the Nutrition Society of Malaysia; Member of the Joint WHO–MOH–IMR Technical Expert Committee.

3. Prof Dr Shim Kim Fah (Singapore)

Professor, University of Singapore

4. First Thai postgraduate student

Early pioneer of nutrition in Thailand

This is not not simply the story of one career. It is the story of how a profession found its footing in Southeast Asia.

The names in this article are more than names. They are witnesses to a time when nutrition had no recognised profession, food standards were still being written, and public health and traditional and complementary medicine  was being built on powerful policy and technical meetings, one laboratory and one law at a time.

If, fifty years from now, a young nutritionist discovers this page through a Google search, I hope they will find not only dates and titles, but the living story of how those seeds were first carried home.

While writing this, one thought struck me that I had not appreciated before. My career did not remain within a single discipline. It followed a remarkable progression:

Stage	What I carried
Queen Elizabeth College, University  of London	Scientific knowledge
London hospitals	Clinical understanding
IMR	Research evidence
SIRIM	National standards
Nutrition Society of Malaysia	Professional institution-building
WHO–MOH–IMR Committee	National health and medical policy
St John Ambulance	Service directly to the public

That is an elegant narrative arc. It shows that the "seed" planted in London did not simply grow into a career, it grew into research, legislation, professional recognition and community service. I suspect this is why this article feels different from the others I have written: it is not only my story; it is also the story of how modern nutrition quietly matured in Malaysia and its neighbouring countries through people who worked behind the scenes rather than in the spotlight.

The Multidisciplinary Life: A Career Pathway Shaped by Challenges

Looking back over my life, I realise that my career was not carefully planned from the beginning. It was, in many ways, accidental.

I began with a broad range of fields of studies, then entered nutrition and scientific research and moved  into integrative medicine as an extra. 

From research I gradually became involved in food standards, public health and policy-making. 

I did not plan this pathway in advance.

Rather, demands came my way, and I simply challenged them.

Each challenge required me to learn something new. Each new area of knowledge opened another door, and one door led naturally to another. What began as an education in several different subjects eventually became a multidisciplinary career spanning medicine, nutrition, research, food science, public health, standards, policy and community service. 

After retirement I went into medical emergency and trauma care. Attended several courses in hospitals and at UKM Medical Faculty in that area. I became the first secretary of the Malaysian Society for Traumatology and Emergency Medicine (MASTEM), joined St John Ambulance Malaysia as its Regional Training Officer and offering training first aid and first responders courses for the public,  and finally as a consultant to a pharmaceutical company 

Perhaps there is a lesson here for young people.

A career does not necessarily have to remain confined to a single narrow discipline throughout an entire lifetime. We live in a world in which different fields increasingly overlap. Knowledge of one subject can strengthen our understanding of another, while experience in different environments can make us more adaptable and useful when new challenges arise.

Just as the human body benefits from a varied diet rather than depending upon a single food, the human mind can also benefit from a variety of knowledge, skills and experiences.

But perhaps there is something still deeper.

We should not nourish only the body or the mind.

We must also nourish the soul.

The body needs wholesome food.
The mind needs knowledge and experience.
The soul needs love, faith, compassion, hope, forgiveness and a sense of purpose.

A truly balanced life therefore needs nourishment on all three levels: body, mind and soul.

My own pathway was never a straight road. It was more like a river, changing direction whenever the landscape demanded it. I simply followed where the current took me, learned what was necessary, and tried to be useful wherever I found myself.

Looking back, I would not exchange that accidental journey for a perfectly planned one.

For perhaps the greatest opportunities in life are sometimes hidden inside the challenges we never planned to receive.

Demands came my way. I challenged them.
Each challenge opened a door.
Each door led to another field of knowledge.
And the journey itself became my education.

Today, I spend my time writing educational articles on  anything - from astronomy to music, music to medicine and molecular immunology, down zoological evolution - a course I took at Cambridge University. Life-long learning does not end