Dr. Rand German, Director of the Center for Innovative Sintered Products at the Pennsylvania State University has accepted a new position as Director for the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems and Chaired Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Mississippi State University, effective 1 October 2005. Dr. German will be replacing Professor Donald Trotter, who retired as the CAVS director on 1 July. This is an outstanding opportunity for Professor German, allowing a marriage of his prior emphasis on materials processing with the CAVS strength in computational and systems engineering. Although he will assume the position at CAVS, he will continue to advise his graduate students at PSU through degree completion while finishing out his current research projects.