News

New Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise announced

ACU has appointed Professor Abid Khan to the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise. Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Zlatko Skrbis announced the appointment on Wednesday 21 September.

Professor Khan comes to ACU from Monash University where he is the outgoing Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Global Engagement). Over 16 outstanding years at Monash, he has held the roles of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Industry Engagement and Commercialisation), Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), as well as senior positions spanning research, innovation, and strategy development and external engagement.

In these roles he built a formidable reputation for enhancing research performance, building research capacity, and generating impactful outcomes through fostering a far-reaching network of researchers, industry partners and investors.

Professor Khan moved to Australia in 2006 from London where he was a Deputy Director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, a unique new research centre cross-linking capabilities at University College London and Imperial College London, which he helped establish and where he also developed Bio-Nano Consulting as an industry facing unit of the centre. Before this, he worked in industry in the United States, having previously been a researcher at Oxford University.

His expertise is widely sought internationally, providing consultancy and advice to universities, private organisations and government agencies.

He also holds positions chairing or as an advisor on multiple bodies such as the Monash Warwick Alliance (Chair and Academic Research Director) which is one of the world’s deepest global university partnerships in research and education across HASS and STEM areas; Go8 Global Engagement Group (former Chair and member); the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (Industry Advisory Board); Victoria’s International Education Advisory Council; Victoria’s International Students Taskforce; ARCH-India Steering Group (Chair); and the Australia-India Institute at University of Melbourne (Fellow).

Professor Skrbis said that Professor Khan was a passionate advocate of industry and enterprise, bringing a wealth of domestic and international recognition for his experience in research innovation, international education and external engagement.

“Professor Khan’s experience and knowledge will be crucial for ACU as we advance our capability in navigating industry and government relations and funding opportunities for our research and enterprise. He will take on the challenge of raising our competitiveness in a marketplace that increasingly relies on funding not only from government but also from industry and other external agencies.”

Professor Khan takes up his role at ACU on 7 November and will be based at ACU’s Melbourne campus. 

Professor James McLaren will finish as Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) on 31 October.