Barry M. Klein, professor and chair of the physics department at the University of California, Davis, has been appointed vice provost for academic personnel, effective July 1, pending regental approval. He will succeed Vice Provost Harvey Himelfarb, professor of art and art history, who will retire from the university to pursue his artistic career as a photographer. In his new post, Klein, 56, will be responsible for academic personnel policy and process, grievance procedures, affirmative action, faculty development and management training for academic leaders and supervisors. "Professor Klein is a highly accomplished faculty member and has served with distinction as chair of the Department of Physics," said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert D. Grey. "During his tenure as department chair, Professor Klein has led a number of exceptionally successful faculty recruitments. That experience, combined with his strong and demonstrated commitment to diversity, will serve UC Davis extremely well during the next several years as the campus recruits for the more than 500 faculty positions to be filled between now and 2005-06." Grey added, "As is evident to anyone who's met him, Barry is also a 'people person' and that humanity, along with his sense of humor, makes him exceptionally well-suited to this extremely important position. I'm delighted to have him as a colleague." The provost also praised Himelfarb for his service to the campus. "One of the most distinctive gifts that Vice Provost Himelfarb has given to this campus has been his creativity and his deep commitment to the faculty. Whether he's solving problems or helping create a campus vision for the future, Harvey can always be counted on to offer both creative insights and a wonderfully humane perspective," Grey said. "Chancellor Vanderhoef and I are very grateful to him for serving as vice provost, not just once but twice, from July 1, 1994, through June 30, 1995, and again from March 1, 1997, through June 30, 1998," Grey said. "He's provided vigorous leadership in our faculty recruitment and retention efforts, earned the deep respect and appreciation of the Committee on Academic Personnel, and all of his work has been dedicated to developing and nurturing academic excellence at UC Davis." Klein was recruited to UC Davis in 1992 to chair the physics department. Previously he had spent 23 years at the Naval Research Laboratory, located in Washington, D.C. During his tenure there, Klein served as a researcher, instructor and administrator in many roles, culminating as the head of the Complex Systems Theory Branch, where he administered a lab of more than 30 scientists, postdoctoral researchers, students and staff. The branch focused on the theory and modeling of condensed-matter systems. In 1984-85, he acted as section head for several National Science Foundation programs, including those in condensed-matter theory, solid-state chemistry and low-temperature physics. Klein said he was drawn to the vice-provost position because it will enable him to help shape the campus's future, most particularly through recruiting and retaining faculty, increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in the employment pipeline, working on wider issues of diversity in the campus community, improving campus outreach and maintaining a strong campus community. "I look forward to working with our campus community to foster the development of a highly effective and diverse academic work force," Klein said. "The opportunity presented by the planned campus growth makes my new position even more exciting and challenging." Since he has been at UC Davis, Klein said he has developed strong personal feelings about the campus. "Even though I'm a boy from the Bronx, I value the Aggie tradition as well as the move ahead to serve the needs of California higher education in the 21st century," he said. Klein is the author or co-author of more than 130 journal publications, chapters, refereed conference proceedings and reports. He also has delivered more than 60 talks and seminars over his career. His research has been supported by grants from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Campus-Laboratory Collaborations Program, Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. His honors include the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award and elected chair of the Division of Computational Physics in the American Physical Society. He was also elected fellow of the American Physical Society and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Klein is affiliated with the American Physical Society, Materials Research Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science and Sigma Xi. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering physics in 1962, a master's degree in physics in 1965 and a doctoral degree in physics in 1969, all from New York University.