CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - At its Jan. 15 meeting in Chicago, the board of trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign approved the following faculty and staff appointments for the Urbana campus effective Jan. 16, 2004:
• Elabbas Benmamoun as the head of the department of linguistics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Since 1999, Benmamoun has served as an associate professor of linguistics and will continue to hold that rank. Benmamoun earned a bachelor's degree from Universite Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco, in 1985; a master's degree from University College London, United Kingdom, in 1987; and a doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1992.
• Steven Glenn Pueppke as the director of the National Soybean Research Laboratory in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Pueppke, who served as interim director since Nov. 1, 2003, will retain concurrent appointments as associate dean for research, College of ACES, and professor of crop sciences, positions he has held since 1998. Pueppke earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University in 1971 and a doctorate from Cornell University in 1975.
• Ian McLean Robertson as the head of the department of materials science and engineering in the College of Engineering. Robertson had served as interim head since March 21, 2003, and has held appointments as assistant dean, and the director of the Office of Continuing Engineering Education since 2001. Robertson joined the faculty in 1995 and will continue to hold the rank of professor of materials science and engineering.
Robertson earned a bachelor's degree from University of Strathclyde, Scotland, United Kingdom, in 1978; and a doctorate from University of Oxford, United Kingdom, in 1982.
• Edward M. Slazinik as the director of the Illini Union. Slazinik has served as interim director since May 2003 and as associate director since 1990. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in 1977 and a master's degree from Southern Illinois University in 1986.
