University of Maryland Professor & Director

The University of Maryland, College Park, invites applications for the position of Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL). Since its establishment in 2003, CASL's mission has been to conduct cutting-edge research that results in improved performance on foreign language and analysis tasks relevant to the work of government language professionals. Visit www.casl.umd.edu for more information about CASL.

The Executive Director (ED) has leadership responsibility for research, operations, strategic planning, and compliance with university and government requirements and regulations associated with CASL's designation as a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). The ED's duties include developing and implementing the US Government-approved research agenda; developing and managing external relations and outreach to academia, industry, and government for purposes of collaborative research and consultation; and overseeing relevant UARC-designated activities and outreach, collaboration, education, policy and evaluation. The ED ensures the hiring and retention of the best researchers and research managers in CASL's core competencies and other relevant disciplines as well as highly qualified financial, information technology, operations, logistics, and security support staff. In addition to aligning CASL's strategic plan with its mission to meet the needs of clients, the ED provides leadership in identifying opportunities for partnering and collaborating with academic departments and other research centers on campus. The ED reports to the Vice President for Research and directly supervises the directors of CASL's various units.

Candidates must have an advanced degree, preferably a Ph.D., in a discipline related to one of CASL's core competencies (e.g., Less Commonly Taught Languages and Cultures; Second Language Acquisition; Computational Linguistics; Linguistics; Cognitive or Social Psychology; Cognitive Science or Cognitive Neuroscience), with a distinguished record of scholarly achievement and/or leadership in one or more areas relevant to the research foci of the center. Candidates' experience, research and publications should show evidence of ability to tackle complex, interdisciplinary research and to work collaboratively with a range of institutions and researchers. Experience working closely with US government and/or industry colleagues in non-academic settings is essential. Candidates must qualify for an academic appointment either as a tenured professor or as a professor of the practice in a department consistent with their background.

Candidates must hold U.S. citizenship and be willing to obtain the appropriate security clearance.

For best consideration, applicants should submit a letter of application, CV, and contact information for three professional references online at htt://jobs.umd.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=57086 by Monday, August 20, 2012. Address questions to the search committee chair, Professor Thomas Wallsten, at tswallst@umd.edu.