Graham Beastall Elected New IFCC President

Graham Beastall of the UK was elected President for the 2009-11 term by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) at the organization's 20th Triennial IFCC Council meeting, which took place during the IFCC-WorldLab Congress held in Fortaleza, Brazil, from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2, 2008.

Dr. Beastall will be taking over from Jocelyn Hicks of the US, who is serving as IFCC President for the current three-year term. Other candidates in the election were Victor Blaton, Belgium, and Jean-Claude Forest, Canada.

Also elected with Dr. Beastall for the same three-year term were six incoming members of the IFCC Executive Board: Chris W Lam, Hong Kong (Vice President); Paivi Laitinen, Finland (Secretary); Ghassan Shannan, Syria (Treasurer); Bernard Gouget, France (Member); Joseph Lopes, Malaysia (Member); Ulisses Tuma, Brazil (Member).

Graham Beastall, BSc, PhD, CSci, EurClinChem, FRCPath, FRCP(Glas), has served as Consultant Clinical Scientist and Clinical Lead for the four-site Department of Clinical Biochemistry in the North Glasgow division of UK's National Health Service (NHS) for the past five years. Dr. Beastall served as President of the [UK] Association for Clinical Biochemistry (ACB) for 2006-2009 and Vice President of the [UK] Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) for 2002-2005. He has held senior positions with the IFCC and EFCC (European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine) and authored over 170 scientific articles and reviews. As an adviser to the UK government, Dr. Beastall has worked closely with the Chief Scientific Officer in the [UK] Department of Health. Dr. Beastall's research interests are in the areas of biochemical endocrinology, evidence-based medicine, and service modernization.

IFCC is the world's leading clinical laboratory umbrella organization, incorporating 79 national societies, five regional federations, and 36 industry members.

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