Appointments

* The Centre for Economic Performance has appointed: John Van Reenan , professor of economics at University College London, as its director; and Stephen Machin , professor of economics at the London School of Economics, and editor of the Economic Journal, as director of research.

Co-directors Richard Layard , Richard Freeman and Stephen Machin will continue to run research programmes.

* Gill Hawksworth , community pharmacist in Yorkshire and honorary lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Bradford, has been elected president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

* Peter Alldridge , former reader in law at Cardiff University, has been appointed Drapers' professor of law at Queen Mary, University of London.

* Derek Law , professor and director of the Information Resources Directorate, has been appointed president of the elFL.net advisory board at The Soros Foundation.

* The University of Central England has awarded professorships to: Graham Matthews , director of research in the faculty of computing, information and English; Jack Ingram , head of the School of Product Design and chair of postgraduate design courses; Helen Coll , head of School of Secondary Education and chair of the National Association of Music Educators; John Eve , teaching fellow in management accounting and financial management; Julian Pike , head of vocal and operatic studies at Birmingham Conservatoire; Douglas Sharp , former chief superintendent of West Midlands Police and now director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research.