* Hugh Laddie , former senior judge of the Patents Court, has been appointed to a new chair in intellectual property law at University College London. He will continue in his role as consultant to Willoughby & Partners/Rouse Legal.
* Cliff Allen , director of programmes at the Higher Education Academy, has been appointed its deputy chief executive.
* Oxford University has appointed: Linda Kerber , May Brodbeck professor in the liberal arts and professor of history at the University of Iowa, to the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth visiting professorship of American history. She will be a fellow of Queen's College; Klaus Ebmkeier , professor of psychiatry at Edinburgh University, professor of old-age psychiatry; and Sue Cunningham , development director at Christ Church, director of development. The university also appointed the following proctors and assessors: Stephen Goss , fellow and tutor in medicine at Wadham College, senior proctor; Sally Mapstone , fellow and senior tutor in English at St Hilda's College, junior proctor; and Kaya Andreyev , fellow of Balliol College, assessor.
* Ian Russell has been appointed chief executive officer of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers.
* Sarah Squire has been elected president of Hughes Hall, Cambridge. She is group director of Foreign and Commonwealth Office Services.