UC president Robert Dynes has appointed Martin Chemers acting chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, pending approval of the regents, the UC Office of the President announced Monday.

The regents will vote on Chemers' appointment at their March 18 meeting. The appointment would be effective April 1, the same day UC Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood will assume her new role as provost and senior vice president of the UC system.

A national search will be conducted to select UCSC's next chancellor, with a permanent appointment expected later this year.

Chemers, 60, is provost and executive vice chancellor at UC Santa Cruz campus. He arrived at the campus in 1995 as dean of social sciences and a professor of psychology.

Prior to coming to Santa Cruz, Chemers was Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College.

He has earned an international reputation for his research and teaching in organizational psychology. He is widely regarded among social psychologists as one of the foremost scholars on cross-cultural and social psychological aspects of leadership.

As acting chancellor, Chemers will be paid $269,200 a year, the same salary Greenwood earns as chancellor.

UC Santa Cruz has a current enrollment of nearly 15,000 students, a total teaching and research faculty and staff of approximately 5,000, and a local economic impact exceeding $1 billion.