Over this past weekend, dozens of current and former faculty and students of the University of Iowa Biochemistry Department descended on Hancher for a celebration of the department’s 70th anniversary.

Charles Brenner, the head of the department, said various current and former faculty made presentations at the event, as did graduate and undergraduate students.

“So it’s kind of like a biochemistry geek fest mixed in with a reunion,” Brenner said.

Two of the featured speakers were former department heads Arthur Spector and Alan Goodridge. Both men were delighted to be back in Iowa City.

“It’s eye-opening,” Spector said. “It’s beautiful, things are vibrant … it’s just a very exciting experience for me to be back.”

Goodridge had similar feelings.

“The city itself is growing, it’s much … less broken, more worldly,” he said. “I don’t think people realize how well-respected Iowa is.”

The Biochemistry Department didn’t gain such a storied history by sticking to the status quo.

“We’re unique in that we’re located in the College of Medicine, yet we have a major in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,” Brenner said. “So we’re responsible for teaching biochemistry, essentially, to everyone at the University of Iowa.”

Goodridge and Spector agree that the department owes its success to one key factor: faculty.

The biochemistry faculty have done excellent work and research, Spector said, and the department also boasts a spectacular undergraduate teaching program, graduate program, and Ph.D. program.

“I think you get that faculty because you get support from the institution as well. And I don’t know about now, but every time I went to [the dean] and said I wanted to hire this faculty member or that faculty member … he’d say, ‘Alan, you’ve got to stop coming to me with all these great faculty members I just have to hire,’ ”  Goodridge said.  “So they were very supportive.”

Looking ahead to the next 70 years, Brenner’s focus is on sustainability throughout the department and focusing on the undergraduate program.

“The Biochemistry Department has a really key role in educating people how the body works … because we all live in our bodies, we all eat food, and are all constantly interacting with the world of biochemicals,” he said.