August 29, 2024
Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
In my campus memo of August 9, I shared with you the news that after nearly 16 years of outstanding and visionary leadership, Susan and Bruce Worster Dean of Science and Professor of Physics Pierre Wiltzius has decided to retire, effective September 1, 2024.
I am pleased now to announce the appointment of an Interim Dean for the Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences. Professor Shelly Gable has graciously agreed to serve as Interim Dean, effective September 2, 2024. I appreciate the broad consultation provided by our Executive Vice Chancellor, Chair of the Academic Senate, and faculty and administrative colleagues.
Professor Gable has a distinguished record of teaching, research, and university service. She joined our faculty in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in 2007, and has held the position of department chair since 2021. She began her career as an assistant professor at UCLA, where she earned tenure and co-founded the Interdisciplinary Relationship Science Program. Her research focuses on motivation, close relationships, and positive emotions, and her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Positive Psychology Network. As part of her long-standing commitment to teaching and research, Dr. Gable has mentored numerous graduate and post-doctoral students.
Professor Gable is a recipient of the Early Career Award from the Close Relationships Group of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Berscheid-Hatfield Mid-Career Achievement Award from the International Association for Relationships Research. She is also a recipient of the highly prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers under the George W. Bush administration. She is a fellow of the International Positive Psychology Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
In consultation with our campus community, we are moving forward quickly to form a search advisory committee for our next MLPS dean. I look forward to making an announcement about this committee in the very near future.
Under Dean Wiltzius’s leadership, our MLPS Division has risen to new heights of excellence and innovation. We are immensely grateful for the countless ways in which he has advanced MLPS and our campus. We look forward with great enthusiasm to the Division’s continued growth in achievement and prestige. Please join EVC Marshall and me in expressing our heartfelt thanks to Professor Gable for her willingness to take on this important interim role to help our campus with the transition, in addition to all of her many other contributions to UC Santa Barbara.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor