After eight-and-a-half years at the helm of the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER), John M. Abowd is stepping down and devoting himself full time to his own teaching and research. Abowd, the Edmund Ezra Day Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell, will be on sabbatical for the spring semester conducting research at the University of Notre Dame's Department of Economics and Econometrics. A search is under way for a new director.