Directors for Education Abroad programs in more than a dozen countries are needed to replace retiring directors, beginning in 2006-07. However, applications from tenured UC faculty must be in by
Jan. 18. About 18 programs, mostly in Europe, will have vacancies. Details are available at <http://eap.ucop.edu/faculty/direct.htm>.

Sanjit Mitra, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was recently awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by Romania’s Technical University of Bucharest.

Sociologist Melvin Oliver, dean of social sciences, has been appointed to the Urban Institute’s Board of Trustees. The institute is a prestigious Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational think tank.

Christopher Orr, Communications Services network administrator, was also named a Santa Barbara Independent Local Hero for 2004. His work on safety protocols on local trails for hikers and mountain bikers brought together diverse groups in a spirit of “collaboration and compromise,” the paper said, that produced consensus on steps to avoid collisions.

Benjamin Jerry Cohen, professor of political science, has edited the two-volume set of “International Monetary Relations in the New Global Economy” (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004), which analyzes the consequences of global capital mobility.

Craig J. Hawker, a former researcher with the California-based IBM Almaden Research Group, has been selected director of the Materials Research Laboratory after founding director Anthony Cheetham moved to the helm of the new International Center for Materials Research.

Gayle Morrison, professor of education, is acting dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, following the retirement last year of 34-year UCSB veteran and GGSE Dean Jules Zimmer. Morrison, an expert in special education and school counseling, joined UCSB in 1980.

Dorothy Pak, a research geologist, has been appointed educational outreach director for the Material Research Laboratory. She had previously worked on various educational outreach programs for the MRL.