John H. Van Vleck, Hollis Professor of Mathematics, has been appointed George Eastman Professor of Oxford University for the academic year 1961-62, Courtney Smith, American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships, said recently.

Van Vleck commented that he plans to lecture on the theory of magnetism while at Oxford. He hopes to avail himself also of the opportunity to do research of Oxford's renowned Clarendon Laboratory.

A professor at the University since 1935, he will fill a position held in the past by such American notables as Felix Frankfurter, Wallace Notestein, and Linus Pauling.

The Association of American Rhodes Scholars administers the funds, which support the Eastman Professorship, a chair established in 1929 to bring senior American scholars to England for one-year periods.