Dr. Gary Libben

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gary Libben to the position of Associate Vice-President (Research), effective January 1, 2009.

As the Associate Vice-President, Dr. Libben will work closely with the Vice-President (Research), all of the Research Offices, as well as the Faculties and Institutes. Dr. Libben’s primary role will be to assist in fostering, enabling and building research at the University of Calgary. I want to highlight Dr. Libben’s talents and successes in leading and securing funding for interdisciplinary research teams, which fit very well with the goals for the University of Calgary.

Dr. Libben will hold a faculty appointment in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Linguistics, and will head an active research lab in the Language Resource Centre. As well, he will represent the university’s interests on relevant committees and boards.

A graduate of Concordia and McGill Universities, Dr. Libben is currently a professor and researcher in the department of linguistics at the University of Alberta with a special interest in how words are represented and processed in the mind. This is a homecoming of sorts, as Dr. Libben was previously a faculty member here at the University of Calgary, Department of Linguistics from 1988 to 1992. He has been a visiting professor internationally, including Austria and the Netherlands. He is a recognized scholar, and is sought after as a visiting speaker and teacher. He was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Currently, Gary is the President of the Canadian Linguistics Association, the founding Co-Editor of The Mental Lexicon Journal, the Director of the Centre for Comparative Psycholinguistics, and the Director of the SSHRC MCRI Project, Words in the Mind, Words in the Brain. He brings considerable administrative experience to his new position, having served with distinction as a Department Chair and as Associate Dean (Research) at the University of Alberta.

My sincere thanks to the Selection Committee who assisted in this recruitment: Drs. Sheila Evans, Ann McWhir, Fred Hall and Gerard Lachapelle.

We at the University of Calgary are truly excited at the prospect of working with Gary on the research portfolio. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Libben back to the University of Calgary, and to his new position.

Dr. Rose Goldstein
Vice-President (Research)
University of Calgary