An award-winning young historian has been selected to fill a chair originally occupied by retired UCLA historian Richard Hovannisian, who is widely regarded as the world’s dean of Armenian studies, the Armenian Weekly reports.

Sebouh David Aslanian, who joined UCLA’s department of history in September 2011 as an assistant professor of history, was installed May 22 in the Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair.

“It was a challenge to find a scholar who could one day fill Richard Hovannisian’s large shoes,” said David Myers, chair of UCLA’s history department. “But we believe that Sebouh Aslanian is that person, and we are delighted and honored to have him.”

Born and raised in Ethiopia, Aslanian is the grandson of Armenian immigrants who fled the Ottoman Empire in the 1890’s. His maternal grandfather, George Djerrahian, co-founded the first privately owned printing press in Ethiopia in 1931. The family emigrated to the United States in 1976, on the heels of the Ethiopian Revolution, and then settled in the United Arab Emirates, where Aslanian attended middle school, before moving to Canada.

Richard Hovannisian retired last year after a 50-year career at UCLA.