Appointments

Chris Gaskell has been appointed as the new chair of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Science Advisory Council, which advises on science policy and strategy. He is principal of the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and takes over the chairmanship from John Beddington, who has been appointed as Chief Scientific Adviser across government departments.

The University of Hull's Catherine Deverell has left academia - but will stay with the institution. A lecturer in the social work department at the university, she has decided to join the childcare team at the university.

John Coffey has been appointed to a personal chair in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester. Since joining the university in 1999, Professor Coffey has held various administrative roles in the school, including senior tutor, director of undergraduate studies and chair of the learning and teaching committee.

Hermione Lee, professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, will be the next president of Wolfson College, Oxford. Professor Lee, chair of the judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2006 and former presenter of the Channel 4 book programme Book Four, is an expert on women writers and American literature. She won the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay prize for her 1996 biography of Virginia Woolf, which was named by The New York Times as one of its best books of the year. Professor Lee said that Wolfson College, "since its foundation by Sir Isaiah Berlin in the 1960s has represented some of the best and most forward-looking aspects of Oxford education. It is a non-hierarchical, friendly, international and lively graduate college." She will take office in October.

Lord Ron Dearing, author of the landmark 1997 Dearing report into higher education and a member of Times Higher Education's editorial board, has become an honorary fellow of The College of Teachers. Honorary fellowships have also been conferred on Hilary Emery, chief executive of the Training and Development Agency for Teachers, and Ray Page, formerly the deputy director of London South Bank University. "The College of Teachers are a distinguished group and I shall count myself fortunate to join them," Lord Dearing said.

Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press, has appointed Roland Ehrenfels as its sales and marketing director. Mr Ehrenfels, currently vice-president of sales (books) at the publisher Springer, will take up the newly created role on 1 May. The post was created as a result of job moves for Richard Gedye and Rachel Goode, sales director and marketing director respectively. Mr Gedye took over as research director of Oxford Journals this month, while Ms Goode has become group communications director for Oxford University Press.

University College London has announced the appointment of Robert Chambers and James Penner as professors of property law. Professor Chambers is a leading authority on the law of trusts. He was a barrister and solicitor in Alberta before obtaining a DPhil at the University of Oxford,and has held appointments at the University of Melbourne, the University of Alberta and King's College London. Professor Penner is an expert in the philosophy of property. He was educated at the University of Toronto and University of Oxford, where he obtained a DPhil, and has taught most recently at the London School of Economics and at King's. Next year he will serve as a visiting fellow at the University of Tel Aviv. Both take up their posts in September.

More than 60 experts have been elected Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Academics on the list include: Stephen Albon, land use programme co-ordinator, Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen; David Barlow, dean of medicine, University of Glasgow; Frank Bechhofer, professor emeritus of social research, University of Edinburgh; Michael Benton, head of earth sciences, University of Bristol; Drummond Bone, vice-chancellor, University of Liverpool; Ian Bonnell, professor of astronomy, University of St Andrews; Mark Bradley, professor of high-throughput chemical biology (Edinburgh); John Brewer, professor of sociology, University of Aberdeen; Janet Brown, chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority; Robert Cormack, principal, UHI Millennium Institute; Jonathan Crook, director of the Credit Research Centre (Edinburgh); David Dritschel, professor of applied mathematics (St Andrews); Sir Gordon Duff, professor of molecular medicine, University of Sheffield; Malcolm Dunlop, head of the Colon Cancer Genetics Group (Edinburgh); Alison Elliot, associate director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (Edinburgh); Gerard Graham, professor of molecular and structural immunology (Glasgow); Kenneth Harris, distinguished research professor, University of Cardiff; Daniel Haydon, professor of population ecology (Glasgow); John Hayes, deputy director of the Biomedical Research Centre, University of Dundee; Gordon Hewitt, chairman of court, University of Abertay Dundee; Kenneth Hunt, professor of mechanical engineering (Glasgow); Larry W. Hurtado, head of the School of Divinity (Edinburgh); Ian Jackson, senior scientist, MRC Human Genetics Unit (Edinburgh); Matthew Kaufman, professor of anatomy (Edinburgh); Kevin Laland, professor of biology (St Andrews); Nigel Leask, Regius professor of English language and literature (Glasgow); David Whyte Macdonald, director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford; Neil Macrae, professor of psychology (Aberdeen); Xuerong Mao, professor of statistics, University of Strathclyde; Ian McEwan, reader in engineering (Aberdeen); Iain McInnes, professor of experimental medicine (Glasgow); John McMurray, professor of medical cardiology (Glasgow); Robert Millar, director of the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit (Edinburgh); Russell Morris, professor of materials chemistry (St Andrews); George Newlands, professor of divinity (Glasgow); Josephine Pemberton, professor of evolutionary ecology (Edinburgh); Christopher Philo, professor of geography (Glasgow); John Renwick, honorary fellow in French (Edinburgh); James Robertson, honorary research fellow in Scottish literature (Glasgow); Sheila Rowan, professor of experimental physics (Glasgow); Helen Sang, group leader, the Roslin Institute; Hamish Scott, professor of international history (St Andrews); Stephen Senn, professor of statistics (Glasgow); Iain Stewart, professor of mathematics (Strathclyde); Jose Torero Cullen, professor of fire safety engineering (Edinburgh); Robin Wallace, head of the Institute for Energy Systems (Edinburgh); Malcolm White, professor of biochemistry (St Andrews); Philip J. Woods, head of the Institute of Physics and Nuclear Physics Group (Edinburgh).