Cambridge University Reporter


reports

Report of the General Board on the Directorship of the Museum of Zoology

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows.

1. In their Report, dated 5 June 1996 (Reporter, 1995-96, p. 834), the General Board recommended approval of a procedure for the establishment for one tenure of a Professorship of Zoology to be held concurrently with the Directorship of the Museum of Zoology. The procedure was approved by Grace 10 of 17 July 1996 and Professor M. E. Akam was appointed to the Professorship from 1 October 1997 by Grace 8 of 23 July 1997. Professor Akam takes up the Professorship of Zoology (1866) and the role of Head of the Department of Zoology on 1 October 2010 and will relinquish the Directorship of the Museum of Zoology from that date.

2. The Head of the Department of Zoology and the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences have advised the General Board that the Museum of Zoology has made significant and welcome progress in its research, teaching, and public-facing activities during the Directorship of Professor Akam, including the generation of funds from external sources, and that to sustain such progress it is necessary to recruit a successor to Professor Akam with an international reputation for research and at the level of Reader or Professor.

3. The Council of the School of the Biological Sciences have approved the case for permission to fill the Directorship including the proposition that for the next tenure the Directorship should be linked to a Readership or Professorship. The Council agree that this would enable the recruitment of a Director with the required combination of world-class research, excellence in teaching, and leadership and strategic management skills gained in an academic or museum environment.

4. The General Board have agreed to accept this proposal. The Board are assured that the necessary accommodation and facilities for the work of the Reader or Professor can be provided in the Department and Museum of Zoology; and that the costs of appointment at Reader or Professorial level will be met by the Department and School. The Board themselves, subject to the approval of the recommendations of this Report, would appoint a body analogous to a Board of Electors that would consider applications and either, in the case of appointment at Readership level, function as a special appointing body, under the provisions of Regulation 1(a) of the regulations for Readers (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 708) or an advisory committee, to advise the General Board, in the event of a Professorial appointment. The Board would then report again to the University recommending the establishment of a Professorship or a Readership for a named person and its assignment to the Department of Zoology. The Reader or Professor would be required to hold the Directorship of the Museum during her or his tenure. Consequential amendment to the regulations for the Museum of Zoology will be approved by the Board once an appointment has been made.

5. The General Board recommend:

That approval be given to the procedure proposed in this Report for the establishment in the University, for one tenure with effect from 1 October 2010, of a Readership or Professorship of Zoology, to be held in conjunction with the Directorship of the Museum of Zoology.

10 July 2009 ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor PHILIP FORD J. RALLISON
  N. BAMPOS SIMON FRANKLIN JEREMY SANDERS
  JOHN BELL ANDREW GAMBLE J. G. P. SISSONS
  TOM BLUNDELL RACHAEL PADMAN I. H. WHITE
 WILLIAM BROWN