Gesche Tallen

Biography

Shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, I graduated from Hamburg Medical School as an MD and PhD ("magna cum laude") and decided to continue with my education in an environment that was not only medically challenging. So I moved to Post-Wall Berlin, which was overcoming its legacy of Cold-War division. My residencies were in Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the Charité, Berlin's University- and Europe’s largest teaching hospital, which, particularly in those days, was facing many new frontiers and boundaries on academic, social, economic, architectural and infrastructural levels. I loved living with this unstable and unpredictable Zeitgeist on a daily basis - it taught me to focus less on a goal and more on what I can do today, right now, in support of that goal.

     During a research- and subspecialty fellowship at the Alberta Children's Hospital as their Pediatric Oncology Program's first fellow ever, I fell in love with a lumberjack and one thing led to another... Now, about 20 years later, with three crazy kids, two big delinquent dogs, always gobbling and giggling guineas, a bunch of boisterous budgies and a busy backyard, I'm feeling at home and happy in Canada.

As a pediatric oncologist, researcher and teacher both in the Old and in the New World, I am grateful for having the opportunity to both learn from and give back to those, whose lives I'm allowed to touch: the cancer kids, their families, the nurses, my mentors, colleagues, and all our students.

Aside from my family and medicine, my passion is painting children's portraits. I believe portraying a child is beyond painting a face  - Every brushstroke gives a glimpse into a unique soul.

My teaching philosophy is the same: I believe that teaching, as a lifelong process of learning, is beyond providing basic medical skills - Every student has a unique set of gifts and talents different from everyone else. Nobody can do your job quite the way you do!

I want to help our students discover those gifts.

https://research4kids.ucalgary.ca/profile/gesche-tallen