Jeff Elman Appointed Dean of Social Sciences Division

Barry Jagoda | July 21, 2008

Jeffrey Elman has been named Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, effective Sept. 1 .

Jeffrey Elman, Associate Dean of the Division of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor in the department of cognitive science, has been named Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, effective Sept. 1.

In making the announcement, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said, "Jeff Elman's administrative and scholarly accomplishments and his vision and extraordinary leadership skills make him an outstanding choice as UCSD's next Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. We are delighted that Jeff has accepted this important position."

Elman is an internationally recognized scholar and one of the top researchers worldwide in his field of language processing and learning. A member of the UCSD faculty since 1977, Elman studies language both through computational models and through psycholinguistic and neuroimaging studies. He earned his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.

"Jeff's service to his department, division and the university has been exemplary," said Paul Drake, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. "He is an outstanding scholar and campus citizen." Elman is a founding member of the department of cognitive science and served as department chair from 1995-1998 and Associate Dean of the Division of Social Sciences from 2002 to 2006. He has served as Interim Dean of the division since October 2007, and as Acting Dean during the 2006-07 academic year.

In addition to his leadership roles in the division, Elman was instrumental in efforts to establish the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, and serves as co-director of the institute.  Elman is an executive committee member for the Center for Research in Language, co-director of the Joint Ph.D. Program (with San Diego State University) in Language and Communication Disorders, and is a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society. In 2007, he was honored with the prestigious David E. Rumelhart Prize for Theoretical Contributions to Cognitive Science.