Dr. David Tapper, professor and vice chair of the UW Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital, has been elected president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association. He is also a director of the American Board of Surgery.

Dr. Paul Lange, professor and chair of the Department of Urology, is assuming the presidency of the Society of Urologic Oncology this month. The national organization is made up of physicians whose primary expertise is genitourinary cancers.

Dr. Fred Rivara, director of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and George Adkins professor of pediatrics, will be the keynote speaker May 7 at the Charles Shepard Award Ceremony of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The annual ceremony honors CDC scientists who have published outstanding papers. Rivara will speak on “Injury Control—The Uses of Science for Prevention,” explaining his application of epidemiologic and scientific principles to prevention of childhood injuries.

Dr. David Dale, professor of medicine and former dean of the School of Medicine, has taken office for a four-year term as governor of the Washington chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP). Assisted by local councils, Dale's responsibilities will include planning scientific meetings, credentialing new members and disseminating ACP policy. He will represent Washington members on the national ACP Board of Governors. The ACP is the nation's largest medical specialty organization, with 100,000 internists and medical students. The Washington chapter has 1,500 members. Dale, an internist at UW Medical Center, is also editor-in-chief of Scientific American Medicine and president of Alpha Omega Alpha, the physicians' national honor society.

Dr. Jodie Haselkorn, associate professor of rehabilitation medicine, has been named chair of the Multiple Sclerosis Council's Spasticity Guideline Development Committee. The group will create guidelines to help physicians making clinical decisions about the care of patients with spasticity and multiple sclerosis. Haselkorn will also chair the new Veterans Affairs section of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers. The section will provide information about multiple sclerosis to VA clinicians, enhance the standard of care for veterans with the disorder, and seek more research funding for multiple sclerosis. She is the acting chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Seattle. ¶