Appointments

University of Toronto

Andrew Stark

An academic specialising in the philosophy of intellectual property law has become a Fulbright scholar. Andrew Stark, professor of strategic management and professor of political science in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, will spend nine months at Columbia University researching intellectual property legal battles in the US. He said of his research that many people working on intellectual property cases "are actually philosophers without knowing it". He added: "My argument is that many of the questions with which litigants and judges wrestle can be viewed not just through legal but through philosophical lenses, and when they are, the kinds of norms that courts and lawyers have been struggling towards become much clearer and more coherent." Professor Stark studied for his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, his master's at the London School of Economics, and a further master's and a doctorate at Harvard University. He spent four years as a policy adviser in the office of the Prime Minister of Canada. Professor Stark joined Toronto in 1992 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1996 and took up his present role in 2001.

University of Auckland

Quentin Atkinson

A Rutherford Discovery Fellowship will aid Quentin Atkinson in pursuing research into the evolution of languages and cooperative cultural systems. Dr Atkinson, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Auckland, completed his PhD at Auckland in 2006 and then moved to the UK for a postdoctoral position at the University of Reading. Prior to returning to Auckland as a member of staff in 2010, he spent three years as a research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. His subject area is "great to study", he said. "We can break languages up into small parts - words or sounds - and create family trees that describe the evolution of these features over time. And since languages are tied to people, by reconstructing the history of languages we're also reconstructing the history of the cultures that those languages belong to." He added that the award, which will give him up to NZ$200,000 (£99,630) annually for the next five years, will allow him to continue the research he is interested in. "It means that I can think longer-term and have the leeway to explore a bit more, and I'm excited about that."

University of Western Australia

Stephen Hopper

The director of Kew Gardens is returning to his alma mater to take up a new chair in biodiversity. Stephen Hopper studied for an undergraduate degree in zoology and botany at the University of Western Australia and remained there to complete a PhD. He was appointed flora conservation research officer at the university, and during his time there held the post of senior principal research scientist and then officer in charge of the Western Australian Wildlife Research Centre. In 1990, he was a Fulbright senior scholar at the University of Georgia and Miller visiting research professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1992, Professor Hopper joined Kings Park and Botanic Garden as its director, and from 1999 to 2004 served as chief executive officer of the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority. He became the 14th director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2006. "I had a simple aim - to ensure that the world, biodiversity and the organisation were in a better place by the time I left," he said. "Like all such aims, my time is marked by achievement in some quarters and much more left to do in others. Biodiversity has an enormous role to play in helping moderate the worst aspects of global warming and in enabling people to live healthy, sustainable lives."

University of Bath

Rob Briner

For Rob Briner, the opportunity to take management research to the people who are actually managing organisations is a key motivation. Currently based at Birkbeck, University of London, he will join the University of Bath as professor of organisational psychology in the School of Management, where he will focus on working to help practitioners apply evidence to operational decision-making. Professor Briner said one of Bath's attractions was its student placement scheme, which he sees as highly beneficial to the field. "In a sense it's too late for the generations that are now working in organisations as they are too used to making decisions without academic evidence," he said. "The change has to start now, with business students being trained to critique and interrogate information. Placements give students the chance to reflect on what they're doing in the classroom." A founding member of the international Center for Evidence-Based Management, Professor Briner was one of the scholars to study mood and emotion at work. His research areas include the psychological contract at work, organisational citizenship, work-life balance and the psychological climate in schools. He is leaving Birkbeck after almost two decades, having joined the college in 1992.

OTHER CHANGES

Robin Mason has been appointed dean of the University of Exeter Business School. Professor Mason has been acting dean since May and joined in 2009 as professor of economics.

Roland Kaye has been appointed dean of the business school at BPP University College. His most recent post was emeritus professor of management accounting at the University of East Anglia.

The University of Stirling has appointed two new deputy principals, Edmund Burke and John Gardner. Professor Burke is currently professor of computer science and dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham. Professor Gardner is currently professor of education in the School of Education at Queen's University Belfast.

Stuart Anderson, associate dean of studies and reader in the social history of pharmacy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has been awarded the George Urdang Medal for distinguished pharmaco-historical writing.

George Mather and Tim Hodgson have taken up posts at the University of Lincoln's School of Psychology. Professor Mather, formerly professor of experimental psychology at the University of Sussex, has become professor of vision science. Professor Hodgson, who was associate professor at the University of Exeter, has joined Lincoln's Perception, Action and Cognition Group as chair in cognitive neuroscience.

Elena Korosteleva, senior lecturer in European politics and director of the Centre for European Studies at Aberystwyth University, has been appointed to a Jean Monnet chair for European integration studies.

The Open University has appointed Steven Hill as its new commercial director. He joins from Thomson Reuters, where he was global head of business management.