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Higuchi sculpture

Higuchi scuplture

The large bronze sculpture which is attached high on the eastern wall of the Manning Building at the Parkville campus was unveiled on 23 February 1972 by Professor Takeru Higuchi to coincide with the First Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association Conference held in Melbourne. Professor Higuchi was then at the University of Kansas and, along with Nigel Manning who was Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Ltd (1963-1978), established the Intersearch program which went onto become a highly productive link between the two institutions.

The Higuchi Sculpture was designed and fashioned by Norma Redpath, an Australian who was working and living at the time in Milan, Italy. It is in two parts: a disc on which there are several ridges; and a rectangle with an arc set in it.

The three main streams of knowledge in the pharmaceutical sciences are represented by ridges on the disc. Biological sciences is in the centre, physical sciences on the left and pharmaceutics on the right. The ridge which represents the biological sciences is heavier and less curved than the other two because it is an older and more established discipline than physical sciences and pharmaceutics.

The disc was initially meant to represent "undergraduateship" but should now be considered to represent the preclinical aspects of pharmacy education.

The path of the ridges is interrupted by a gap between the disc and the rectangle above it to indicate that the practical applications of what is taught in the preclinical components of the pharmacy course are achieved by having students spend time in community and hospital pharmacies.

The ridges fuse together in the rectangle to denote the competent pharmacist. This is when academic, practical and professional experiences become integrated into the whole and complete individual.

A fourth ridge in the left hand side of the rectangle represents administrative pharmacy and pharmacy management.

The total design suggests an inverse mortar and pestle, and the symbolism is that of the heraldic academic medallion.

Eli Lilly Co., a multinational pharmaceutical company, donated considerable funds towards the commissioning of the sculpture, with the balance being provided by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.