Berkeleyan

News Briefs

17 July 2008

Maslach named vice provost for teaching and learning

In a move signaling that Berkeley is increasing its focus on supporting excellence in pedagogy, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Christina Maslach has been named the campus’s first vice provost for teaching and learning.

Maslach’s new mission reflects Berkeley’s commitment to creating a campuswide vision for teaching and learning, and to ensuring that its reputation as a leading academic and research institution extends to the classroom.

The vice provost for teaching and learning will concentrate on promoting new pedagogical methods, including educational technologies; fostering students’ academic success and achievement; improving instructor training; obtaining grant support for curricular innovation; and enhancing the campus’s classrooms and other teaching and learning spaces.

Maslach, a professor of psychology, is a recipient of the campus’s Distinguished Teaching Award and a former Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year. As vice provost for undergraduate education since 2001 she has overseen the creation of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and what is now Educational Technology Services, and in her new role will continue to administer these and other units and programs that support teaching and learning.

Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowships announced

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Welfare Sheldon Zedeck has announced the recipients of Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowships for 2008. The fellowships provide summer salary awards in the amount of $5,000 for junior faculty use on a proposed project that provides an opportunity for educational enrichment through significant research, advanced or independent study, or improvement of teaching effectiveness.

The recipients include Amy Herr, bioengineering; Cynthia Coburn, education; Patrick O’Grady, environmental science, policy, and management; Jenna Burrell, information; Sarah Song, law; Junqiao Wu, materials science and engineering, James Davies, music; and Tania Lombrozo, psychology.

Schekman named first Miller Senior Fellow

The Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science has named Randy Schekman, professor of molecular and cell biology, as its first Miller Senior Fellow. The new program provides selected faculty with significant discretionary research funds as recognition of their distinction in scientific research.

Senior Fellow appointments of tenured Berkeley faculty will be made (at a rate of roughly one per year) for five years, possibly renewable for a subsequent five years. Each Senior Fellow will receive an annual research stipend of $50,000 for use at his or her discretion. Formal obligations to the institute will be limited.

Nominations, solicited by invitation only, will be due no later than Sept. 30 for appointments to take effect in 2009-10. For more information, contact Kathryn Day at 642-4088, millerinstitute@berkeley.edu, or visit millerinstitute.berkeley.edu/page.php?nav=126.

Nominations sought for Carnegie Scholars Program

The Faculty Awards Committee of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate is seeking nominations for the 2009 Carnegie Scholars Program. 

Fellowships of up to $100,000 will be awarded to explore the topic “Islam in the Modern World.” Nominees may be recent Ph.D.s or more established scholars, or individuals with equivalent professional experience or degrees. 

Nomination packets must include a one-page letter of recommendation, a brief description of the research project prepared by the nominee (1,000 words maximum), a timeline, a preliminary budget estimate, and a curriculum vitae (15-page maximum). Proposals must be forwarded electronically by Aug. 8 to the Academic Senate Faculty Awards Committee, via Diane Sprouse (dsprouse@berkeley.edu).

 For details about the Carnegie Scholars program, visit www.carnegie.org/sub/program/scholars.html#carnegiescholars.

Guidelines for recycled copy paper

The campus Office of Sustainability, in conjunction with Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing, has developed guidelines to help the campus reduce paper usage and lower the environmental impact of producing paper. The guidelines ask departments to phase out the use of virgin paper and adopt a minimum standard for copy paper of 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. They also encourage adoption of a higher standard for copy paper of 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled content where appropriate.

The guidelines are posted at businessservices.berkeley.edu. For further information, contact Lisa McNeilly, director of sustainability, at 643-5907.

Technology and Leadership Studies program launched

The College of Engineering has announced the launch of Technology and Leadership Studies (TLS), a new program to provide undergraduate, graduate, and executive-education courses in technology management, innovation, and entrepreneurship; support a federation of cross-campus centers and programs; recognize individual achievements in leadership; and build strategic global partnerships. Ikhlaq Sidhu, adjunct professor of industrial engineering and operations research, will serve as founding associate dean.

As part of its mission, TLS will host the A. Richard Newton Global Technology Leaders Lecture Series and Conference, named for the late engineering dean and sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship and improving education.

New Riverside chancellor starts work this week

Timothy White will officially begin his term as chancellor at UC Riverside on Friday, July 18. White, who has spent the past four years as president of the University of Idaho, succeeds former Chancellor France Córdova, who stepped down last summer to assume the presidency of Purdue University.

White, 58, has an academic background in physiology, kinesiology, and human biodynamics; he is internationally recognized for his work in muscle plasticity, injury, and aging. A first-generation college student, White began his higher education at Northern California’s Diablo Valley Community College; he received his B.A. at CSU-Fresno, his M.S. at CSU-Hayward, and his Ph.D. at Berkeley. He served as professor and then chair of the Department of Human Biodynamics at Berkeley from 1991-96, and has held other faculty appointments at the University of Michigan and Oregon State University; at the latter he served as provost and executive vice president, and as president on an interim basis, before joining the University of Idaho as president in 2004. For more information, visit chancellorsearch.ucr.edu.