President's Message

Greetings to all fellows.
I hope that the end of year holidays and time spent with family and friends went well.

Conference

Not long now to the conference at Rhodes, May 24-29. Despite hiccups in the Greek economy, everything seems to be on track for a successful conference. Our host, Dr Andreas Papatheodorou of the University of the Aegean informs us that there is great energy, enthusiasm and hospitality awaiting us in Rhodes. David Airey has been keeping us informed. The Region of Southern Aegean has agreed to provide good sponsorship and more is in the pipeline.
Regarding accommodation, our hosts have rooms reserved at a number of hotels (centrally located) but have asked us to be patient while specific hotels are being selected. Announcements will be made as soon as we have information on the accommodation. Meanwhile we request you to notify Leslie Fung of the HK Polyu secretariat leslie.fung@polyu.edu.hk of your proposed attendance. The secretariat is coordinating room allocation.

Nominees for New Fellows

Eight candidates have been proposed for membership of the Academy. Each will attend the Rhodes conference and will make a presentation on their 'research journey'. List of nominees for Fellows followed by nominators and seconders:
Prof. Dianne Dredge (Aalborg University) - David Airey, Pauline Sheldon
Prof. Maria Gravari-Barbas (Sorbonne) - Myriam Jansen-Verbeke, Nelson Graburn
Prof. Metin Kozak (Mugla University) - Muzzo Uysal, Egon Smeral
Prof. Christian Laesser (St Gallen) - Larry Dwyer, Richard Perdue
Prof. Anna Mattila (Penn State) - Bob McKercher, Abraham Pizam
Ms. Mara Manente  (University of Venice) - Douglas Frechtling, Karl Wöeber
Prof. David Simmons (Lincoln University NZ) - Larry Dwyer, Chris Ryan
Prof. Bihu Wu (Peking University) - Daniel Fesenmaier, Alastair Morrison (with support letters from Kaye Chon and Haiyan Song)

Emerging Scholars

The three emerging scholar awards go to:
Dr. Robin Nunkoo University of Mauritius
Dr. Muchazondida Mkono University of Queensland
Dr. Zheng (Phil) Xiang, Virginia Tech
These scholars will receive their awards at the Rhodes conference.

A special thanks to Dick Butler, Alison Gill, Cathy Hsu, Alan Lew and Egon Smeral for choosing the Emerging Scholars from CVs of six nominees. I understand that the overall standard was excellent. Thanks also to Tom Baum for coordinating this.

Nominations for New Academy Executive

The election process will begin soon. Nominations close February 28. Self nominations are permissible. Ask not "what can the Academy do for you?. But rather, what can you do for the Academy"? (with apologies to JFK).
I hope that 2015 is shaping up as a stellar year for all. See you in Rhodes.

Best wishes,

Larry
l.dwyer@unsw.edu.au