November 21, 2000 For Immediate Release

Political Science professor Alex Michalos has been elected President of the Royal Society's Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, for a two-year term. The Royal Society of Canada is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars.

Dr Michalos has published 18 books and more than 75 articles, and his work has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, German, Polish, French, Italian, and Spanish. Most of his research and teaching has been concerned with improving quality of life through basic research and applications of science and technology. At UNBC, he created the Institute for Social Research and Evaluation, which has conducted a number of studies on quality of life in Prince George and area, including surveys on crime, recreation, health, and seniors.

Nationally, his most significant work includes a five-volume comparison of quality of life in Canada and the US, covering 1964-1974. His four-volume Global Report on Student Well-Being (1991-93) gives the results of a survey of more than 18,000 university students in 39 countries. It remains the biggest international survey of students ever conducted.

He founded and edits four scholarly journals, Social Indicators Research (a journal for quality of life measurement), the Journal of Business Ethics and Teaching Business Ethics (with UNBC Vice-President Academic Deborah Poff), and the Journal of Happiness Studies.

The Royal Society of Canada was founded in 1882 and has about 1600 members, called Fellows. There are about 34,000 university professors in Canada, and only about 5-percent of them are Fellows of the Royal Society. Each year, 60 new Fellows are elected, with success determined by the quality and quantity of their research. Dr Michalos was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993.

hi-res photo of Dr. Michalos (300dpi)