John H. Tate Jr., Perkins Professor of Mathematics, will serve as acting Master of Dunster House next year pending administrative approval, Dean Fox said yesterday.

"He is a straight-forward, honest and active person and I am delighted that I finally persuaded him to take the position," Raoul Bott, Graustein Professor of Mathematics and Master of Dunster House, said yesterday.

Bott is taking a sabbatical next year to advise and lecture students at the University of Paris and Oxford.

Masters ordinarily recommend their replacements to the Master Selection Committee, Fox said. If the board concurs, the nomination proceeds to the Corporation, he added.

"The recommendation is usually accepted and Bott has made a good recommendation," Fox said.

Tate is currently on leave and is conducting research at the University of Paris at Orsay.

"It won't make much difference to the juniors and seniors but the incoming sophomores will have to get used to one master and then have to switch on Bott's return," Pavan Linardes '81, a Dunster House committee member said yesterday.

"I hope he'll be good, but not all that much better than I," Bott said.