ANU New VC Climate and E-Learning Experience

The Austrlaian National University has announced Professor Ian Young as the new ANU Vice-Chancellor. Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology since 2003, Professor Young, is a civil engineer with an interest in climate issues and experience in e-learning.

Media Release

New ANU Vice-Chancellor announced

Friday 1 October 2010

The next Vice-Chancellor of The Australian National University, from 1 March next year, will be Australian higher education leader and world ranking coastal and ocean engineer, Professor Ian Young.

Announcing the appointment today, following the University Council’s four-month international search for a successor to retiring Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb, ANU Chancellor Professor Gareth Evans said:

“Professor Young was the outstanding candidate in a stellar field.

“He has a wonderful scholarly and professional reputation, and all the qualities of vision, judgment and management flair – and commitment to excellence in research, teaching and policy outreach – that this great national university needs to take it through its next stage of development.

“The higher education environment, both domestically and internationally, is becoming ever more fiercely competitive, and for all our achievements until now, we know that ANU cannot just rest on its laurels. Ian Young is superbly equipped to lead us through the challenges ahead.”

Professor Young has been Vice-Chancellor and President of Swinburne University of Technology since 2003, during which time it has entered international rankings for the first time, doubled its revenue, more than doubled its research citations, and increased significantly the number of staff with a PhD. He has previously held senior academic positions at the Universities of Adelaide and New South Wales, James Cook University, and at the Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie in Hamburg.

Long active in Australian higher education policy and administration, he was appointed by the then Minister for Education, the Hon Julia Gillard, as the sector’s representative on the Australian Qualifications Framework Council. He is also presently Chair of Education Australia Ltd and a Director of IDP Education Pty Ltd, the world’s largest recruiting agency for international students, as well as a Director of Universities Australia, Open Universities Australia. He has written extensively on issues including international education collaboration, research funding, the linkages between vocational education and higher education and models for educational funding.

Professor Young is one of the most cited civil engineers in Australia, and the only serving Australian Vice-Chancellor to hold current Australian Research Council grants. He has published three books and more than 100 journal papers in the fields of coastal and ocean engineering, with research covering areas such as environmental design parameters, the physics of wind generated waves, satellite remote sensing of the oceans and global climate.

Professor Young also has strong industry links, acting as a consultant to the coastal and offshore industries in Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States, as well as to government bodies like NASA and the US Office of Naval Research. He has a strong track record of generating industry and business support for projects and programs at Swinburne University.

Professor Young has been elected as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Member of the American Geophysical Union, and was awarded the Centenary Medal for Services to Australian Society.

Present Vice-Chancellor Ian Chubb, who has presided over an extraordinarily successful decade of growth and change at ANU, said of his successor:

“I warmly welcome the appointment of Ian Young. To be the Vice-Chancellor of ANU is one of the greatest honours and privileges academic life has to bestow. I am sure that Ian will come to admire the institution and enjoy his time here as much as I have. ”

Professor Young said following his appointment:

“I am both delighted and honoured to have been selected as Vice-Chancellor of the ANU. This is an outstanding institution with an extraordinary resource of talented staff.

“I very much look forward to working with the Council and the staff and students of the university in continuing to build ANU as Australia’s national university and a world-class institution of which all Australians can be proud.” ...