The Board of Governors has accepted the President’s recommendation to appoint Professor Eric Eich as Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President Academic Affairs, for a five-year term commencing in 2015.
Eric is a professor in the department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts. He received his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1979, and the following year, was appointed the Director of the Behavioral Studies Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. In 1983, he was recruited to UBC. Eric is an internationally recognized cognitive psychologist whose research is exceptionally well acclaimed. In 2003, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada. He has received several awards for scholarship, including the UBC Senior Killam Research Prize in 2001, the Distinguished University Scholar award in 2003, and a Founding Fellow award from the UBC Institute of Mental Health in 2006. Eric is a two-time winner of the UBC Psychology Department’s Knox Master Teacher Award (1991 and 1997), and he is only the second member of the Department to receive the Dean of Arts Award (2013).
Professor Eich’s commitment to excellence in graduate and undergraduate education has been recognized by both his peers and his students. His efforts to enhance psychology education at UBC may be seen, for example, in the establishment of the Quinn Memorial Endowment. This substantial endowment was the direct result of a competitive proposal Eric co-authored with June Chow (UBC Development and Alumni Engagement office). This endowment supports an innovative program providing graduate students with the opportunity to work internationally in research labs, acquiring new scientific skills. A similar initiative for undergraduate students, providing them with travel funds for their research work, was also initiated by Professor Eich.
Eric has a significant record of service to both the university and the psychology community, serving as the Head of Psychology at UBC, as the department chair of various university committees, as the Faculty representative in other departmental searches, and on the Student Evaluation of Teaching Committee. Externally, he has served the community through his memberships in various scholarly societies and research centres.
As Head of the Department of Psychology from 2004 to 2011, Eric gained significant administrative leadership experience. In 2011, after stepping down as head, he was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of Psychological Science. He will continue in that position until he takes up the Vice-Provost role.
The Provost is grateful to Professor Hugh Brock who has stepped in as the Interim Vice-Provost until Eric starts full-time in July 2015. He would also like to thank the advisory committee members for their time and efforts in serving on the President’s Advisory Committee, and for their good counsel throughout the search process.