Appointments

A professor of education has been appointed the next vice-chancellor of Keele University. Nick Foskett, currently dean of the faculty of law, arts and social sciences at the University of Southampton, will take up the position on 1 August 2010. Professor Foskett, whose expertise is in higher education policy, read geography at Keble College, Oxford, and went on to work in secondary education and then university administration, before being made a lecturer in education at Southampton in 1989. He was appointed professor of education in 2000, and took up his current post in 2005. He will succeed Dame Janet Finch, who is retiring after 15 years at Keele's helm.

The Higher Education Academy has announced six new senior fellows. They are: Guillaume Alinier, Hertfordshire Intensive Care and Emergency Simulation Centre co-ordinator, University of Hertfordshire; Mark Fenton-O'Creevy, professor of organisational behaviour, The Open University; John Knight, principal, Royal School of Military Survey; Judy McKimm, senior lecturer, University of Auckland; J. Robert Sneyd, professor of anaesthesia, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry; and Angela Thody, emeritus professor, University of Lincoln.

Paul Grice, clerk and chief executive of the Scottish Parliament, has been appointed to the Economic and Social Research Council. Mr Grice has worked in the devolved Parliament since its inception in 1999, previously holding posts at the Department for Transport and the Department of the Environment, where he worked on bus deregulation, railways policy and local government finance. The appointment is for three years.

Joanna Price has moved from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, to become the new head of the University of Bristol's Veterinary School and department of veterinary clinical sciences. Professor Price is an alumna of the institution, having graduated from Bristol as a veterinary surgeon in 1983. Her area of expertise is the functional adaptation and regeneration of bone in humans and animals.

Two academics have been promoted to chairs at the University of Bath's faculty of science. Gregory Sankaran, who has worked at Bath since 1995, will take on a new post in the department of mathematical sciences. He has previously carried out research in India and the Netherlands, and was a lecturer at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Gareth Price will take up his chair in the department of chemistry. He studied for a BSc and PhD at Bath, before going on to work at the University of Toronto and City University London. He returned to his alma mater to take up a lectureship in 1988.

An architect has been made dean of the Arts University College at Bournemouth's faculty of art and design. Oren Lieberman is a founding partner in the art and architecture practice INDEX, and former curator of the Fenster Gallery in Frankfurt. He has held academic posts in Germany and Scotland, and was most recently associate dean of architecture and design at the University for the Creative Arts.

An academic at Bangor University who has conducted world-leading research into the impact of human action on the oceans is to join a panel of experts working on the selection of marine conservation zones. Michel Kaiser, professor in the School of Ocean Sciences, joins eight others on the independent scientific advisory panel. It forms part of a government initiative to implement the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, which will create a network of marine conservation zones around the English coast by 2012.

The former chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency, Peter Williams, has been appointed to the board of governors at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. Mr Williams, who has worked in higher education for more than 40 years, will also become a member of its finance and estates committee, which is overseeing a £50 million estates development programme across the university's campuses.

A professor from the University of Southampton has been invited by Gordon Brown to lead a panel of experts overseeing the release of local public data. Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence and deputy head for research at Southampton, will lead a team including local government chief executives, IT experts and entrepreneurs. The panel forms part of a drive to help "empower" citizens by improving local public services, and will aim to advance understanding of why the release of local public data is important.

A nurse who was one of the first in the UK to specialise in incontinence has been named professor of clinical nursing innovation in a joint appointment between Bucks New University and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Christine Norton is currently associate dean (research) at King's College London and Burdett professor of gastrointestinal nursing at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. She will take up her new position in March 2010.

Publisher Elsevier has announced that Henk F. Moed is to join the company's academic and government products division as a senior scientific adviser. Dr Moed joins Elsevier from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University, where he has worked since its inception in 1981. He has supervised numerous large projects commissioned and funded by external agencies, including the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Ministry of the Flemish Community, the European Commission and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Dr Moed will take up the role in February 2010.

University College London's Bartlett faculty of the built environment has made three senior internal appointments. Marcos Cruz, a London-based architect and lecturer at UCL, is taking over as director of the Bartlett School of Architecture. Iain Borden, formerly head of the school, is to take on a new role within the faculty as vice-dean for communications. And David Cobb is joining the faculty as director of business development from UCL Business.

Tim Miller has been appointed chair of the governing body at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has been director of people, property and assurance at the Standard Chartered Bank since 2004, where his responsibilities included human resources, corporate real estate and the corporate secretariat. In his new post, Dr Miller will lead in setting Soas' strategic direction. He takes over from Lady Judge on 1 January 2010.