Editors' Note

The editors welcome Randall M. Packard, Ph.D., as the new William H. Welch Professor of the History of Medicine, and Director of the Department of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In these capacities, he takes over from Gert H. Brieger, who retires from the chairmanship on 31 December 2001.

Dr. Packard comes to Hopkins from Emory University in Atlanta, where he is Professor of African History and Professor of International Health. He has chaired the department of history at two universities, Tufts and Emory, and is Director of Emory's Center for the Study of Health, Culture, and Society. He has also served as chair of the Joint Committee of African Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and Social Science Research Council.

Dr. Packard's current research concerns the response to malarial epidemics in Southern Africa in the early twentieth century. He brings to this topic several years of academic and public health experience in Swaziland, Zaire, and Uganda. He is the author of two books (White Plague, Black Labor: The Political Economy of Health and Disease in South Africa [University of California Press, 1989], and Chiefship and Chronology: A Study of Political Competition [University of Indiana Press, 1981, and winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Book Award]), co-editor of four others, and author of more than 25 published articles.

The recipient of numerous grants, from such organizations as the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Library of Medicine, Dr. Packard has also received several Fulbright-Hays awards.

As for the Bulletin, the present editors will continue at their posts at least through the next volume. We look forward to introducing Dr. Packard to the AAHM membership at the 2002 meeting in Kansas City, and we know he looks forward to meeting the Bulletin's authors, reviewers, advisors, and readers.

...