Dean of Medicine John Cairns has been named president of the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges (ACMC) for a two-year term.

Based in Ottawa, ACMC was formed in 1943 to represent academic medicine in Canada. The nation's 16 medical schools are association members.

The group co-ordinates education programs among the schools, stimulates research activities and helps to develop and disseminate health and research policies.

Cairns, a UBC medical school alumnus, has been dean of the Faculty of Medicine since 1996.

Victor Ling, the Faculty of Medicine's assistant dean, Research, BC Cancer Research Centre, has been named as a member of the governing council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Vice-president of Research at the BC Cancer Agency, Ling will join CIHR president Dr. Alan Bernstein and 18 other council members from universities, research institutes, industry and governmental groups across the country.

A faculty member since 1995, Ling is renowned for his discovery of the existence and mechanisms of drug resistance in chemotherapy.

CIHR replaces the Medical Research Council of Canada and will create a series of virtual institutes linking investigators from all four areas of health research: biomedical, clinical, health systems and services, and population health.

Barbara Drysdale of UBC's Public Affairs Office recently won a Gold Prix D'Excellence for Best Institutional Annual Report from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE).

The report, "Define a University," highlighted the achievements of UBC students, faculty and staff.

The award is based on excellence in concept, graphic design and editorial content in communicating the institution's sense of accountability to its community. Entries were assessed by colleagues across Canada and external professional judges.

The CCAE represents more than 170 post-secondary institutions across Canada.

Science Dean Maria Klawe has been elected vice-president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Founded in 1947, the ACM has a membership of more than 80,000 computing professionals in some 100 countries.

Klawe holds the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council-IBM Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for B.C> and the Yukon, which focuses on increasing the participation of women in information technology careers.

Prof. William Hsieh is a co-recipient of this year's Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's President's Prize.

Hsieh, who has a cross-appointment in Earth and Ocean Sciences as well as Physics and Astronomy, was recognized for his contributions to global climate research. In particular, the prize honours his development of neural network techniques for forecasting climate variability.

For the past several years, Hsieh's UBC Climate Prediction Group has been forecasting El Niño and La Niña events.

Economics Prof. Charles Blackorby is the new president of the Canadian Economics Association (CEA).

Blackorby specializes in economic theory with particular interests in public and welfare economics. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society.

With 1,400 members across the country and abroad, the CEA is the national organization of academic economists.

The association advances knowledge through encouragement of study and research and publications, including The Canadian Journal of Economics.