Irvine : Royal College Honors UCI Dean of Medicine

England’s prestigious Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has given special admission to Dr. Edward J. Quilligan, UC Irvine’s vice chancellor of health sciences and new dean of the College of Medicine.

The Royal College, based in London, admitted Quilligan as a “fellow ad eundum ,” a Latin term that means “to the same.” The fellowship confers on Quilligan all the rights and privileges of membership in the Royal College, without the examination required of British doctors admitted as fellows.

While the title is a professional courtesy that involves no duties or trips to England for Quilligan, such fellowships are bestowed on few physicians outside Britain, according to UCI spokesman Randall Black. He said fewer than 50 Americans have been granted admission in the history of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Quilligan is the editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a former president of the American Obstetrics and Gynecology Society. In 1966-69 he was chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University, and in 1969-78 he was chairman of the same department at USC.

Quilligan came to UCI in April from the University of California, Davis, where he was chairman of the university medical center’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.