Dec 21, 2006 10:45 AM

University of Virginia Provost is named new chancellor

Gene D. Block, 58, vice president and provost of the University of Virginia and a respected biologist, will be UCLA’s ninth chief executive. His appointment, which was recommended by UC President Robert C. Dynes, was confirmed Dec. 21 during a special teleconference meeting of the UC regents. Block will take office on or before August 1, 2007.

“I am very pleased that Gene has accepted this appointment and I think he will be an excellent chancellor,” said Dynes. “He is an accomplished scholar and administrator, a man of integrity, and I believe he understands well our mission as a world leader and a public institution, as well as the opportunities and challenges facing UCLA.”

Block said he was “deeply honored and excited by this appointment. UCLA is a remarkable institution with a long and proud public service heritage, and it is a major economic and social force in one of the world’s most diverse and important urban communities.”

The chancellor-designate will succeed UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams, who has served since July, when Chancellor Albert Carnesale stepped down. Dynes thanked Abrams for serving as acting chancellor until Block takes office. Block was selected in a nationwide search that produced a pool of approximately 100 candidates.

“What really intrigues me about UCLA is that topologically and geographically it’s very compact, yet very comprehensive. It has a very high-quality student body and outstanding faculty. It’s the formula for greatness, an institution that has opportunities for really profound growth,” Block noted.

He joined U.Va. in 1978 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 1989. His research and teaching expertise is in the cellular physiology of biological clocks and chronobiological aspects of aging. In 1991 he was named founding director of the National Science Foundation’s Center for Biological Timing, based at U.Va. Two years later he filled the newly created position of vice provost for research, and in 2001 he was named vice president and provost.

Block said his transition from teacher/researcher to administrator at U.Va. was unplanned but surprisingly satisfying. “At one time in my life I would tell everybody I really love teaching and research; I could never decide which I like[d] more. I thought that administration was the one part of it that I would avoid.”

Yet his experience as an administrator, he said, has been “absolutely fascinating. I found a whole new group of people, unbelievably talented staff, whom you don’t usually interact with as a faculty member … And it allows you to really paint on a larger canvas.”

Block is also a proponent of the university’s shared governance model, recognizing that too often there is a great cultural divide between faculty and administration. “One has to understand how to govern a university. It’s not like a corporation, and it does involve a tremendous amount of consensus building.”

He noted the need to fully engage the broader university family, something he worked on at U.Va and expects to continue at UCLA. “We have this extended community of friends and alumni who really are the engine, in many ways, to get the activities of the university completed…whether it’s helping us raise money or giving generously.” He added that alumni, donors and friends often play a critical role in explaining where the university needs to go, serving as advocates in the community and in speaking with key civic and business leaders.

Colleagues speak highly of Block. Gertrude Fraser, U.Va. vice provost for faculty advancement, said, “He is a really incredible leader. He brings to his leadership a certain openness to discovery that I think comes out of his scientific training.”

Block has addressed a number of high-priority issues at U.Va, among them improving diversity among faculty, staff and students; creating new interdisciplinary institutes and centers; growing the sciences at a school with deep roots in the humanities and professional studies; and leading universitywide research on effective K-12 teaching.

Among the issues Block said he is poised to address at UCLA are building student and faculty diversity; addressing the challenges of faculty recruitment given the high cost of living in Los Angeles; and maintaining UCLA’s leadership in biomedical research at a time of increasingly limited federal research funding.

Block holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. He is married and has two children.

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