Search starts for new UCI chief

Andrew Edwards

The search for a new chancellor started Monday as University of

California President Robert Dynes announced the formation of a

17-member advisory committee that will begin figuring out who should

lead the UC Irvine campus.

The committee is scheduled to meet behind closed doors Friday to

talk with UC Irvine students, faculty, employees and community

representatives.

The move was made necessary with the official announcement Monday

that Chancellor Ralph Cicerone, who has held UC Irvine’s top position

since 1998, will leave the university at the end of this school year

to be the next president of the National Academy of Sciences. He is

scheduled to take on his new assignment July 1.

At Friday’s meeting, committee members will begin discussing

specific qualifications a new chancellor should have, committee

member George Blumenthal said. Blumenthal is president of the

University of California’s Academic Senate, which represents teachers

at all 10 UC campuses.

“That’s something we will be learning on Monday,” Blumenthal said.

Three UC Irvine professors, Sandra Irani, Larry Eugene Overman and

Brook Thomas, were named to the advisory group. Two students, Gabriel

Ayass, undergraduate student body president, and Fabio Leite,

graduate student body president, will also serve on the committee,

which will include former UC Irvine Alumni Assn. president Steven

McHolm and Ted Smith chairman of the UC Irvine Foundation.

Leite said he was not looking for anything fancy in potential

candidates.

Cicerone, 61, was voted to the academy’s presidency by the body’s

members. The National Academy of Sciences is a Washington-based

nonprofit association of scholars created by Congress in 1863 to

advise the federal government on science and technology.

“In my 16 years at UC Irvine, the campus has made great strides in

its capacity to benefit our students and the lives of people in

Orange County and beyond through education, community involvement,

research innovations and contributions to economic growth,” Cicerone

said in a statement. “I’m extremely enthusiastic about what the

future holds for UC Irvine and take immense pride in the university,

its faculty, staff and students.”

Cicerone’s academic background is in atmospheric chemistry, and

before becoming UC Irvine’s leader, he served as the university’s

dean of the School of Physical Science and founded UC Irvine’s

department of Earth System Science. His wife, Carol, is a professor

of cognitive sciences at UC Irvine. The couple plan to move to

Washington this summer.

In 2001, Cicerone led a National Academy of Sciences study on

climate change that was commissioned by the Bush administration. The

study concluded that greenhouse gases, mostly from human sources,

were contributing to global warming. He first received membership to

the prestigious academy in 1990.

The final decision on UC Irvine’s next leader will be made by the

UC Board of Regents, which is expected to choose a new chancellor by

June, UC Irvine spokeswoman Susan Menning said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards

@latimes.com.