President's Message

It is my great pleasure to announce that Academy fellows have voted in three new members. Please welcome Susanne Becken from Griffith University, Gang Li from Surrey and Noam Shoval from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All three are outstanding candidates who are true world leaders in their respective fields. They will have a strong and immediate impact on the Academy.

It would be remiss as well, not to thank those nominees who were not successful. Needless to say, each one of them is disappointed at the outcome, but understand the process. Each is also a very strong academic and, hopefully, in time they will become Fellows.

Thanks to those of you who did vote. But, it was somewhat disappointing that only 48 Fellows, or roughly only two-thirds of members, cast a ballot. This lack of interest among some Fellows leads to the second major issue being addressed over the past few months and that is a revision of the bylaws.  Christian Laesser and his team have drafted up a revised set of bylaws. The executive has made comments on an earlier set of revisions. It is hoped that team will make its final recommendations in early 2018, for discussion and approval by the Executive, before going out to Fellows for ratification. We will update you further changes once more information is available.

I hope 2017 has been a good year for you and that 2018 will be a healthy and prosperous year for all.

Bob
bob.mckercher@polyu.edu.hk