September 22, 2021
Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
After more than three years of outstanding leadership as our Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Letters and Science and Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, and two years before that as co-Interim Dean, Dr. Jeffrey Stopple has decided to return to teaching and research following a sabbatical leave in the fall.
We are enormously grateful for Professor Stopple's deep dedication to our campus and our students, especially during this challenging pandemic time. He has worked collaboratively with our colleagues to find innovative ways to foster student success and advance educational excellence at UC Santa Barbara.
Under his leadership, our Office of Undergraduate Education has worked tirelessly to assist students with academic planning, and to connect them with a wide variety of campus student success programs to help students enhance their undergraduate experience and complete their degree in a timely manner. He has worked closely with CITRAL, Instructional Development, Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, the Freshman Seminar Program, the L&S Honors Program, UCDC and the Education Abroad Program, Summer Sessions, Professional and Continuing Education, Student Affairs, and many other units and programs across the campus in order to engage, challenge, and support our students.
In addition to his role as Dean, Dr. Stopple's record of administrative leadership includes serving as Vice Chair and Chair of our Department of Mathematics, as a member for three years on the Committee on Academic Personnel, as Associate Dean of the UC Education Abroad Program and member of the UCEAP Governing Committee, as Chair of the Undergraduate Council, and as one of our campus leads on UCOP’s Budget Framework Implementation Project.
Dr. Stopple has been part of our faculty in the Department of Mathematics since 1987. An expert in analytic number theory and computational number theory, he has authored a highly regarded textbook, A Primer of Analytic Number Theory: From Pythagoras to Riemann, published by Cambridge University Press.
Professor Stopple has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to teaching and mentoring undergraduates, including working with numerous students on senior honors projects and with students in the UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS) program, which aims to foster future leaders by preparing promising students for advanced education in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering. In 2012, he was honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for his contributions as a faculty mentor.
Following consultation with our faculty, staff, and administrative colleagues, Executive Vice Chancellor, Academic Senate Chair, and Executive Dean of our College of Letters and Science, I am pleased to announce that Professor Michael Miller has graciously agreed to serve as our Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Letters and Science and Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, effective October 1, 2021.
Dr. Miller joined the faculty in our Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in 2002, and he just completed a term as chair of the department. He is also vice director of our Sage Center for the Study of the Mind, co-leader of the Cognitive Neuroscience Task Order within our Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, and co-director of our Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neurosciences. He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Dartmouth College, and was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston prior to coming to UC Santa Barbara. His research is focused on the psychological and neural processes underlying human memory and decision-making. He is a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society, and editor of The Year in Cognitive Neuroscience, an annual review published by the New York Academy of Sciences.
We will consult with our campus community and Academic Senate to form a search advisory committee for our next Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education.
Please join us in extending our heartfelt appreciation to Dean Stopple for his exceptional contributions to our academic community over more than three decades, and continuing. Please also join us in thanking Professor Miller for his willingness to serve in this important interim role.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor