UCLA is one of the world's premier universities. At the core of the university's research programs, graduate training, and undergraduate instruction is the UCLA College of Letters and Science.

Dean of Humanities

Tim Stowell, a 25-year veteran of the College’s Department of Linguistics and a noted syntactician, was named dean of the university's division of humanities on September 1, 2006.

Tim has risen through the ranks of the linguistics department, which he joined in 1981 as an assistant professor. The department is considered by linguistics specialists to be at the very top of its field. Stowell has distinguished himself in the branch of linguistics that explores how meaning is related to grammatical representation. In his early work, he pioneered the research of deriving generalizations in word order for specific languages.

Tim has served twice as department chair: from 1994-98, and from 2004 until his appointment as dean.

Tim has served in visiting professorships at 13 universities and summer institutes in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is the current co-editor of Syntax and has been a longtime participant on the editorial boards of five other publications in his field.

Dean of Life Sciences

Emil Reisler, a long-time academic leader at UCLA and a renowned biochemist whose work explores the functioning of proteins at the molecular level, became dean of life sciences on July 1, 2004.

As dean of life sciences, Emil is also senior associate dean for life sciences in the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Emil joined the UCLA faculty in 1976. His research and teaching focus on understanding the molecular-level functioning of proteins, and their interaction in motion and force generation in muscle and non-muscle cells. His work has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the American Heart Association.

Emil has been an academic leader of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, serving as Vice Chair from 1989 to 1991, and Chair from 1997 to 2001.

Acting Dean of Physical Sciences

Joseph Rudnick is acting dean of the Division of Physical Sciences. The former chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Joe has served on the UCLA faculty since 1984, when he joined the faculty in the Department of Physics in 1984 as a full professor. His research focuses on condensed-matter physics; his recent work has explored problems in biological physics.

Joe has been active in academic leadership, both within the College and in university-wide administration. From 1986-89, he was chair of his department, and he began his current term as chair in 2004. He has also served on several university-wide committees, including the Committee on Academic Personnel from 1994-97; he was vice chair of the committee in 1996 and 1997.

Acting Dean of Social Sciences

Reynaldo Macías is the acting dean of the Division of Social Sciences, the largest academic division in the College.

Reynaldo brings to his new role 35 years of academic leadership and national service, as well as an outstanding career in research and teaching about language, education, literacy, teacher preparation and multicultural curriculum issues.

Reynaldo has served on the UCLA faculty since 1998, and is currently chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. He holds joint faculty appointments in the departments of Education and Applied Linguistics. He is co-founder of Aztlán—International Journal of Chicano Studies Research, and of the National Association of Chicano Social Science. He has served as editor or a member of the editorial board for the National Association for Bilingual Education Journal, the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, and the Language Assessment Quarterly.

Dean/Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

Judi came to UCLA in the fall of 1969 as an Assistant Professor in Physiological Science. Early in her career, she was recognized for innovative teaching, and in 1973, she received a UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award - the second woman to achieve this honor at UCLA. She was the Chair of her Department for five years (1980-85) and was one of the founders of the undergraduate Neuroscience program (established in 1991). Her research on spinal cord physiology and limb dynamics was continuously funded by NIH for 27 years, and she received a Javits Neuroscience Research Award in 1990. She served as the Chair of UCLA's Academic Senate in 1994-95.

Judi was selected to be the first Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education in 1996. In this post, she is responsible for many programs that foster innovation in undergraduate education, including General Education, College Honors, the Student Research Programs, the Writing II Program, UCLA's student diversity programs, and the Office of Instructional Development. Judi served as acting executive dean of the UCLA College from July 2003 to July 2004.