Patience at the bench
Laboratory work rewards quiet attention. The student who learns to wait for a culture, to look twice at a slide, learns more than technique — they learn the scientific habit.
Biography
About Dr. Fawzi Hassani
A life in the service of teaching, laboratory practice, and the slow craft of training scientists.
Dr. Fawzi Hassani is Professor of Microbiology and Hematology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Damascus. After his pharmacy studies in Damascus and obtaining the Diplom-Pharmazeut, he undertook a sustained programme of scientific cooperation with the Carl Gustav Carus Medical Academy in Dresden (German Democratic Republic), where between 1985 and 1988 he completed extended practica in medical microbiology, clinical chemistry, and laboratory diagnostics.
His doctoral work — supported by the Institute of Microbiology in Dresden under Prof. Wolf Witzleb — focused on legionella infections in Syria, a study based on serological investigation of more than 500 sera from healthy individuals and approximately 200 double sera from pneumonia cases.
His international collaborations continued with a DAAD-funded scientific exchange at the Universitätskliniken des Saarlandes in Homburg in 1998, undertaken jointly with the universities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Lattakia. The programme covered hemostaseology, modern clinical chemistry, virology, DNA analysis, urology, and bacteriology — laying the foundations of his subsequent supervision of master's and doctoral theses at Damascus.
For more than five decades he has taught microbiology, hematology, and the laboratory sciences at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Damascus, supervising successive generations of pharmacy and laboratory students.
Mission
Teaching philosophy
A few principles, gathered over a long career, that have guided the laboratory and the lecture hall.
Theory and practice together
A lecture without the laboratory is incomplete; a laboratory without the lecture is empty. The two must always be taught together.
Service to students
A teaching laboratory exists for the student. The role of the professor is to make the science accessible without diminishing its rigor.
Career
Academic timeline
A chronology of academic appointments, training, publications, and recognitions.
- 1975
Began teaching at Damascus
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Damascus
Joined the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Damascus, beginning more than five decades of continuous service in microbiology, hematology, and the laboratory sciences.
- 1985
Practicum — Medical Microbiology, Dresden
Medizinische Akademie „Carl Gustav Carus" Dresden, GDR
Month-long practicum (24 July – 24 August 1985) at the Institute of Microbiology, covering toxoplasmosis serology, clinical bacteriology, antimicrobial resistance, gonococcus cultivation, tuberculosis and legionella diagnostics, chlamydia, virology, mycoplasma, parasitology, and IgM antibody methods.
- 1985
Practicum — Clinical Chemistry & Lab Diagnostics, Dresden
Institute of Clinical Chemistry & Laboratory Diagnostics, Dresden
Practicum (24 July – 24 August 1985) covering hospital laboratory organisation, automated clinical chemistry, urgent diagnostics, hematology and coagulation analytics, hormone and trace-element analytics, protein analytics, and methods including ultracentrifugation, electrophoresis, Sephadex chromatography and immunodiffusion.
- 1986
Doctoral research project — Legionella in Syria
Institute of Microbiology, Carl Gustav Carus Medical Academy, Dresden
Beginning of the multi-year research project on Legionella infections in Syria — a serological investigation of 500 sera from healthy individuals and approximately 200 double sera from pneumonia cases, conducted with annual research stays at the Dresden Institute under Prof. Wolf Witzleb.
- 1986
Practicum — Medical Microbiology, Dresden
Institute of Microbiology, Carl Gustav Carus Medical Academy, Dresden
Practicum (24 July – 22 August 1986) on legionella diagnostics, syphilis serology, chlamydia trachomatis, mycoplasma diagnostics, and bacteriology of the respiratory and urinary tracts — with extended bench work in the legionella laboratory (media preparation, cultivation, antigen preparation for IIF, indirect/direct immunofluorescence).
- 1988
Practicum — Legionella & Antimicrobial Sensitivity, Dresden
Institute of Microbiology, Carl Gustav Carus Medical Academy, Dresden
Practicum (28 July – 22 August 1988) at the Institute of Microbiology focusing on legionella diagnostics by indirect immunofluorescence and the determination of bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics — continuing the long-standing cooperation with Prof. Witzleb's institute.
- 1998
DAAD scientific exchange — Saarland, Germany
Universitätskliniken des Saarlandes, Homburg
DAAD-funded scientific cooperation (18–27 July 1998) between the universities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Lattakia and the Medical Faculty of Saarland — covering hemostaseology, modern clinical chemistry on HITACHI analyzers, virology, DNA analysis, urology, clinical bacteriology, and a final meeting with Prof. Muhjiedin Jouma, Vice-Rector of the University of Damascus.
- 2025
Fifty years of continuous teaching
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Damascus
Marked half a century of continuous academic and laboratory teaching at the Faculty of Pharmacy, having supervised generations of pharmacy and laboratory science students.
Teaching
Courses taught
Microbiology I & II
Foundational lectures and practical sessions in general and clinical microbiology.
Clinical Microbiology
Diagnostic microbiology, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and hospital infection.
Hematology I & II
Red and white cell physiology, hematopoiesis, and the major hematological disorders.
Practical Hematology
Peripheral blood film interpretation and routine hematology bench work.
Laboratory Methods
Specimen collection, microscopy, quality control, and good laboratory practice.
Practical Microbiology
Gram staining, culture techniques, and routine bacteriological identification.