* Robert Kalin , professor in the school of civil engineering at Queen's University, Belfast, has been appointed to a research chair in environmental engineering, sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Keller Ground Engineering.
* Bill Wakeham , vice-chancellor of Southampton University, has been appointed to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for a four-year term.
* John Morgan , director of Nottingham University's Centre for Comparative Education Research and Commonwealth Education Documentation, has been appointed to the university's recently established Unesco chair in the political economy of education.
* The Royal Irish Academy has elected Pól Ó Dochartaigh , who is based at Ulster University's Coleraine campus, chair of the committee for modern languages, literary and cultural studies for a four-year term.
* Thomas Schneider , formerly at Basel University in Switzerland, has been appointed to the chair of Egyptology at Swansea University.
* Ivor Roberts , ambassador to Italy since 2003, will succeed Michael Beloff as president of Trinity College, Oxford University.
* Klaus Wahle , research professor at the School of Life Sciences, Robert Gordon University, has been appointed visiting professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.
* Pamela Taylor , principal of Newman College of Higher, has been elected chair of the Standing Conference of Principals from November 2005 for a two-year term.