For the first time in its history, RCSI has conferred a Fellow by special election.

An amendment to the RCSI Charter, which came into effect in October 2004, allows the College to confer this honour on surgeons of distinction whose professional status is of a high order and who are deemed to have rendered special service to surgery in general or to the College in particular.

Professor S. William Gunn is President of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Medical Society and was the first to receive an RCSI Fellowship by Special Election, awarded during the College's December Postgraduate Conferring Ceremony today.

Professor Gunn has an extensive background in the WHO with a focus on disaster management. He is the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Burn Surgery and Fire Disasters, and former Director of the organisation's Global Emergency Humanitarian Operations. He compiled the first WHO Emergency Medical and Equipment Kit, and has published widely on this topic. His achievements include receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Palermo University, founding the International Association for Humanitarian Medicine; of which he is currently President; and writing the Dictionary of Disaster Medicine and International Relief, which has been translated into several languages. He also gave the 1986 Abraham Colles Lecture at the RCSI on Disaster Medicine and Emergencies.

The December Postgraduate Conferring also saw approximately 80 candidates awarded with intercollegiate board specialty diplomas, intercollegiate membership of the RCSI (MRCSI) and RCSI Ophthalmology (MRCSI Ophthalmology), fellowship of the Faculty of Radiologists (FFR), membership of the Faculty of Dentistry (MFD) and fellowship of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery (FFN RCSI).

Intercollegiate Board Specialty Diplomas were presented to 15 candidates in General Surgery, two in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, one in Otolaryngology, one in Paediatric Surgery, three in Plastic Surgery and five in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery. The RCSI awarded Intercollegiate Membership to 35 candidates, while three others gained Membership of the RCSI in Ophthalmology. 17 new Fellows were admitted to the Faculty of Radiology, and one new Intercollegiate Fellowship by Specialty Examination in Orthodontics (IFSE Orthodontics) was awarded. The Faculty of Dentistry admitted 18 new Members, and the RCSI Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery welcomed five new Fellows.