Appointments

Mohan Munasinghe has been appointed director-general of the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester. He will take up the role from September. Currently vice-chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Professor Munasinghe is also senior adviser to the Government of Sri Lanka.

Three new appointments to the Natural Environment Research Council have been announced by Ian Pearson, Minister for Science and Innovation. Rowan Douglas, Charles Godfray and Andrew Watson will join the council for the next four years. Mr Douglas is the managing director of Willis Analytics for Willis Re, and chairman of the Willis Research Network. Professor Godfray is a Fellow of the Royal Society and professor in zoology at the University of Oxford. He is currently on the science advisory panel of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and was previously director of NERC's Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College London. Professor Watson is a professor of the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has also been involved with a number of international advisory boards such as the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Bjerknes Climate Centre, Norway. Additionally, Peter Hazell, Huw Davies, Alistair Fitter and Alex Halliday were confirmed for a second term on the council.

The University of Nottingham has named Karen Cox as pro vice-chancellor for human resources, access and community. She joined the university in 1994 as a researcher, later taking up a senior lectureship before being appointed chair in cancer and palliative care in 2002. She was also head of the School of Nursing for five years, and was the elected chair of the British Psycho-Social Oncology Society from 2003 to 2007. Professor Cox is an elected member of the Executive of the Council of Deans of Health, and is currently serving on one of the subpanels for nursing for the 2008 research assessment exercise. Nottingham has also announced a new post for Bob Webb, as pro vice-chancellor for research. Professor Webb was previously dean of the faculty of science and professor of animal science. He has held research posts at the Universities of Michigan and Oxford, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and the Roslin Institute, now part of the University of Edinburgh.

Derek Godfrey has this week become the first deputy vice-chancellor of Bucks New University. Professor Godfrey is leading the "University 2010" strategic development project at the university, which aims to consolidate the institution on one campus. He joined the university from Cable & Wireless last year as pro vice-chancellor (research, enterprise and operations). Between 1995 and 1998, he was associate dean for research and external affairs at Coventry University, where he is a visiting professor.

At a ceremony this month in Los Angeles, Anthony Hopwood of the Said Business School at the University of Oxford was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame - only the third British citizen to receive that honour. Those recognised are drawn from the fields of professional practice, public service and regulation, and accounting education. Professor Hopwood, the American Standard Companies professor of operations management and former dean of the school, was recognised for developing a European outlook and a social theory agenda for accounting research. He has been involved in launching initiatives to make Europe a platform for the study of accounting practices, including founding the European Accounting Association, and developing the accounting activities of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has appointed David Keyes as division chair of mathematical and computer sciences and engineering, while Brian Moran is named division chair of earth and environmental sciences and engineering. Professor Keyes is professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University and vice-president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Professor Moran joins KAUST following 20 years at Northwestern University, where he served as professor and chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering. Prior to this, he also served as chair of the department of mechanical engineering at Northwestern.

A PhD student at the University of Bristol has been named as the winner of the annual Tocris Bioscience prize. The cash prize recognises the best final-year pharmacology PhD student at the University of Bristol, as selected by the department. Sam Goodchild won the award for research carried out in Neil Marrion's group in the pharmacology department, working to understand the structure of the proteins that control neurons in the brain.

The Historical Association has elected Anne Curry, professor of medieval history at the University of Southampton, as president - only the fourth woman elected to the post since its foundation in 1906. Southampton is further represented by Richard Harris, senior lecturer in education, who is chair of the association's secondary committee. They are joined on the HA executive by David Waller of the University of Northampton, Sean Lang of Anglia Ruskin University and Andrew Foster of the University of Chichester.

The University of Exeter Business School has announced the appointment of a new director. Richard Lamming, currently the director of the School of Management at Southampton University, will take up the post at the start of the new academic year in October. Professor Lamming has previously held posts as the CIPS chair of purchasing and supply management at the University of Bath, where he founded the Centre for Research in Strategic Purchasing and Supply, serving as director until 2001. He has been head of corporate development for the School of Management between 1996 and 2000 and head of research for the school for two years from 2001.

Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor and president of City University London, has been appointed as the Government's new adviser on school and university links in London. He will lead a drive to encourage state schools and universities across the capital to forge links with each other to help raise aspirations among school pupils. Professor Gillies joined the university from the Australian National University, where he was vice-president (development). He has also held posts as dean of the faculty of music at the University of Queensland and pro vice-chancellor responsible for commercialisation and for the faculties of humanities, social sciences and the professions at the University of Adelaide.