SUBJECT:

Appointment of Dean of the Division of Social Sciences

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Dr. Jeffrey Elman, Associate Dean of the Division of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science, has been appointed Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, effective September 1, 2008.

A member of the UCSD faculty since 1977, Dr. Elman's research focuses on language processing and learning. He studies language both through computational models and through psycholinguistic and neuroimaging studies. He is a internationally recognized scholar and is regarded as one of the top researchers in his field worldwide. Dr. Elman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Elman's service to his department, division and the University has been exemplary. He is a founding member of the Department of Cognitive Science and served as Department Chair from 1995-1998 and Associate Dean of the Division of Social Sciences from 2002-2006. He has served as Interim Dean of the Division since October 2007, and as Acting Dean during 2006-2007. He is the holder of the Chancellor's Associates Chair I.

In addition to his leadership roles in the Division, Dr. Elman was instrumental in efforts to establish the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, and serves as co-director of the Institute. An outstanding scholar and campus citizen, Elman is an executive committee member for the Center for Research in Language, co-director of the Joint Ph.D. Program (with SDSU) in Language and Communication Disorders, and is a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society. In 2007 he was honored with the prestigious David E. Rumelhart Prize for Theoretical Contributions to Cognitive Science.

Dr. Elman's administrative and scholarly accomplishments and his vision and extraordinary leadership skills make him an outstanding choice as UCSD's next Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. We are delighted that Jeff has accepted this important position and invite you to join us in congratulating him on his appointment.

Marye Anne Fox Chancellor Paul W. Drake Senior Vice Chancellor