The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:
1. The Reports of the Council on the financial position of the Chest recommending allocations for 2005-06 (Reporter 2004-05, p. 699) and for 2006-07 (Reporter 2005-06, p. 671) both included funding allocations to meet the cost of measures, approved by the General Board, that would enhance the University's return for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The recommendations of the Reports were approved, respectively, by Grace 2 of 6 July 2005 and Grace 6 of 5 July 2006. In particular, the non-recurrent allocations were to enable a limited number of offices to be established in anticipation of vacancies which would occur through retirement. To date, the General Board have recommended the establishment of three Professorships and four Readerships under this initiative (Reporter, 2005-06, pp. 504 and 559). The Board now recommend the establishment of a further fixed-term Professorship, as proposed below.
2. Professor C. J. Humphreys is due to retire from the Goldsmiths' Professorship of Materials Science in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy on 30 September 2008. To aid succession planning, and to further enhance the Department's research profile in preparation for the RAE, the Board agreed that it would be advantageous if the successful candidate for the Professorship could be elected at an early date, on the basis that they would recommend, if necessary, the establishment of a fixed-term Professorship for the person elected until he or she took up the Goldsmiths' Professorship on 1 October 2008.
3. The Board of Electors for the Goldsmiths' Professorship of Materials Science have agreed that Professor A. K. Cheetham, Professor of Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, be elected to the Professorship in succession to Professor Humphreys. The Board have established that Professor Cheetham is willing to accept appointment to a fixed-term Professorship for the period 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2008 and to the Goldsmiths' Professorship of Materials Science thereafter. The Board accordingly propose that a Professorship of Materials Science be established, as specified above.
4. The General Board recommend:
That a Professorship of Materials Science be established for one tenure in the University from 1 October 2007 until 30 September 2008 for Professor Anthony K. Cheetham, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.
| 4 May 2007 | ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor | WILLIAM BROWN | D. W. B. MACDONALD |
| GRAEME BARKER | PHILIP FORD | MELVEENA MCKENDRICK | |
| JOHN BELL | RICHARD FRIEND | PATRICK SISSONS | |
| TOM BLUNDELL | RICHARD HUNTER |