February 14, 2025
Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
In my campus memo of September 12, 2024, I shared with you the news that after more than eight years of outstanding and visionary leadership, Vice Chancellor for Research Joe Incandela decided to return to his faculty position. We have since formed a search advisory committee, which was announced to the campus on January 15, 2025.
I am pleased to announce that after extensive campus consultation with our Academic Senate chair and vice chair, faculty members, and our administrative colleagues, Dr. Scott Grafton, currently our Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, has graciously agreed to serve as Interim Vice Chancellor for Research, effective February 14, 2025.
Dr. Grafton joined UC Santa Barbara in 2006 and served as a Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the UC Santa Barbara Brain Imaging Center. During his tenure, Dr. Grafton contributed to our university in several notable ways, serving as the Bedrosian-Coyne Presidential Chair in Neuroscience, a co-director of the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB), and a neurologist at our Student Health Center. His Action Lab has grown the Brain Imaging Center (BIC) into a multimodal center that combines state-of-the-art brain imaging with tools to measure the body’s physiological signals. He was elected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow in 2013.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Grafton provided exemplary leadership as our COVID Mitigation Program Manager.
We are grateful to Dr. Grafton for his willingness to serve our campus in this important leadership position.
Please join me in once again extending our sincere thanks to Joe Incandela for his exceptional contributions as vice chancellor, and his continuing contributions as our faculty colleague.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor