Dear colleagues,
On behalf of Chancellor Gillman, I am pleased to announce that Hal S. Stern has been appointed vice provost for academic planning, effective Sept. 1. Since joining UCI as founding chair of the Department of Statistics in 2002, Professor Stern has held a range of academic and administrative leadership roles. He served for eight years as chair of statistics and then more than six years as the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. He is currently a Chancellor’s Professor of statistics.

Before joining UCI, Professor Stern had faculty appointments at Iowa State University and Harvard University. His research interests include Bayesian methods, model assessment techniques, causal inference, and collaborative projects in the life sciences and social sciences. He is co-director of the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence, funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and is part of the leadership team for the Conte Center at UCI, funded by the National Institutes of Health.Professor Stern is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In addition, he has served on several expert committees for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

In his new role, Professor Stern will be responsible for academic planning and will work closely with the schools to develop new degree programs and academic units. He will serve as UCI’s accreditation liaison officer for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and will lead the Academic Planning Group.Please join me in congratulating Professor Stern on his new role.

Sincerely,
Enrique J. Lavernia, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Distinguished Professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering