New executive vice chancellor selected
By Brooke Olson
Concluding an intensive five-month search, the UC Board of
Regents approved the nomination of Charles Kennel to UCLA’s
second-highest campus office.
Kennel, a world-renowned physicist and long-time UCLA faculty
member, will assume the position of executive vice-chancellor on
Feb. 1, where he will find himself responsible for administering
all the campus academic organizations.
"(Kennel) is an outstanding scientist and scholar and an
inventive thinker who will help UCLA formulate the kinds of
long-range planning necessary to position the university for
preeminence in the 21st century," Young said in a statement
released Friday.
As executive vice-chancellor, Kennel will be responsible for
day-to-day operations of the university, and report directly to
Young.
Kennel, who has been on a two-year leave from UCLA while heading
a NASA program, succeeds Andrea Rich, who left UCLA last summer to
become president and chief executive officer of the L.A. County
Museum of Art.
"UCLA can develop into a really extraordinary university that
will fully respond to the needs of the 21st century," Kennel said.
"My job is to take all the smart people in the university and get
them to integrate their thoughts toward academics."
Kennel began his UCLA academic career in 1967 as an associate
professor in the physics department. Renowned for his study of
space plasmas, he became a full professor in 1971.
From 1976 to 1977, he was the acting associate director of
UCLA’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics department. He
chaired the physics department from 1983 to 1986 and was associate
director of UCLA’s Institute for Plasma and Fusion Research.
Honored in 1993 with the Faculty Research Lecturer Award, the
highest campus recognition for research achievements, Kennel went
on to serve as chair of the university’s Academic Senate Planning
Committee.
In February 1994, Kennel took a two-year leave of absence from
UCLA to head NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth, the world’s largest
environmental space program.
Daniel Goldin, a NASA administrator, said that both Kennel’s
experience and his leadership qualities will greatly benefit
UCLA.
"NASA has benefitted enormously from Professor Kennel’s presence
in Washington," Goldin said. "His skills and his style will be
great assets in supporting the leadership of UCLA."
Kennel has also served on several advisory panels and is a
consultant to both private and government agencies, including the
National Research Council and the Department of Energy.
In addition to research, Kennel has served as a Fulbright
lecturer in Brazil; taught in Italy, France, and the Soviet Union;
and was a Fairchild professor at the California Institute of
Technology.
After two years of absence, Kennel said he is "delighted to be
coming home."
Charles Kennel returns to UCLA after a two-year period at
NASA.
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