* Cardiff University has appointed: David Jiles , former professor at Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, director of the Wolfson Centre for Magnetics in the School of Engineering; and Nick Pidgeon , former chair in environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia, professor in the School of Applied Psychology.
* Cardiff School of Art and Design has appointed Gaynor Kavanagh head of school. She has held posts in the department of museum studies at Leicester University, set up the graduate school at Bath Spa University and was dean of media and culture at Falmouth College of Art.
* The Royal College of Art has appointed Mark Nash , director of the International Centre for Fine Art Research at the University of the Arts London, head of curating contemporary art.
* Bath University has appointed Saiful Islam , former reader in materials chemistry at Surrey University, to a chair in computational materials chemistry.
* Dundee University has appointed: Ron Hay , who has held posts at Harvard University, St Andrews University and Glasgow, chair of molecular biology; Jennifer Harris , formerly at York University, chair of social science; Jeremy Wyatt , former associate director for research at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, professor of health informatics; and Brian Callison , author, Royal Literary Fund writing fellow.