Charles R. Fay, deputy director of the Cornell Center for the Environment, has been named the university's vice provost for research administration. Fay succeeds Jack W. Lowe, who is retiring as executive vice provost for research. The appointment is effective May 1, 2001.

Announcing the appointment, Vice Provost for Research Robert C. Richardson said Fay will serve as senior administrator of the university's Office of the Vice Provost for Research. He also will serve as co-chair of the University Health and Safety Board, as an ex-officio member of the Radiation Safety Committee and as a member of the University Library Board, Richardson noted. In addition, the new vice provost will be the institutional official responsible for Cornell's animal care program, overseeing the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and the Center for Research Animal Resources.

The Center for the Environment, where Fay has been an administrator for the past 14 years, is one of the programs he will oversee in the research office. Others include the Center for Applied Mathematics; Center for Radiophysics and Space Research; Center for Materials Research; Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source; Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research; Cornell Nanofabrication Facility; Center for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering ( the Theory Center); Institute for Biotechnology and Life Sciences; Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics; Laboratory of Nuclear Studies; Nanobiotechnology Center; National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which operates the Arecibo Observatory for the National Science Foundation; and Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences.

Before joining the Center for the Environment (formerly, the Center for Environmental Research) as administrative officer in 1987, Fay was a grant and contract officer in the Office of Sponsored Programs, starting in 1984. He holds a B.S. (1974) in business finance from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.