William Rutherford International Award

 About the Award

This award by the College of Emergency Medicine recognizes the inspiring work of one of the specialty’s ‘founding fathers’, William Rutherford.  William Rutherford was a pioneer of the specialty of Emergency Medicine but his dedication to service also took him to work as a doctor in rural India for 20 years.  It was after his return from there, in 1967, that he became surgeon in charge of the Accident & Emergency Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, where he worked until his retirement in 1985.

William died in December 2007 when he was in his 80s.  The College of Emergency Medicine decided to establish an award to commemorate his life and his work, particularly recognizing his work in troubled times and in areas of deprivation. 

The award can be made every fourth odd-numbered year beginning in 2009 and information about the award will be published here on the College website.  Potential recipients can be nominated by Fellows or Members of the College of Emergency Medicine although the nominee need not be formally affiliated with the College. The deadline for receiving nominations is the end of November of the preceding year in order to allow the College time to consider the nominations and invite the recipient to present at the following year’s autumn national conference.  The call for nominations for 2013 is now open.

Download the nomination form

The award will consist of a printed scroll and an invitation to present their work.  The International Committee has the responsibility for proposing the recipient to Council and liaising with the nominee who would be reimbursed for travel costs to the UK and who would be the guest of the College for the relevant conference (College pays conference registration fee and hotel accommodation for one person related to the conference). 

Criteria for this award:

1. The award could be given to either an individual physician or an organization.

2. The physician or organization should have conducted work that has had major humanitarian or public health benefit overseas. 

3. The recipient’s work should have relevance to or direct involvement with Emergency Medicine.

4. The recipient should not have already received a similar award from another organisation, unless it is felt by the proposer that by receiving this award it would help to publicise and further expand or improve the humanitarian work of the recipient.

Examples of the type of work suitable for consideration for this award would include the following:  disaster relief, refugee assistance, establishing new public service health/emergency care facilities, epidemic or disease control operations, and diplomatic efforts connected with peace programmes.

International Committee

October 2012

2009 Award

The College received six high calibre nominations for the award which demonstrated the range and depth of involvement of our Fellows overseas in improving standards of health across the world.

The College is delighted to announce that Professor Elizabeth Molyneux has been chosen as the winner of the first William Rutherford International Award for her outstanding work in international emergency care. Prof Molyneux will be presented with her award at the College's autumn scientific meeting at Imperial College London in September. Prof Molyneux has also been invited to present an overview of her work in a plenary session at the Conference.