Ian Young (academic)

Ian Robert Young (born 17 January 1957) is an Australian academic. He is the Kernot Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He previously held the senior administrative roles of Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology (2003-2011) and Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (2011-2016).

Early life and education

Young was born on 17 January 1957, in the small town of Cunnamulla in remote western Queenland, where his father Richard was the local school master. The family relocated to Townsville in northern Australia when he was 6 years old. He attended Pimlico State High School and then studied Civil Engineering at James Cook University. He completed three degrees at James Cook, graduating with BE(Hons) (1979), MEngSc (1982) and PhD (1984). His PhD study was focused on Ocean Engineering and particularly ocean surface waves.

Research and career

Young was a postdoctoral research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg Germany (1983-1984), where he studied under Klaus Hasselmann. His post-doctoral work was focused on the use of ship radar to measure ocean waves, this work ultimately leading to the development of the WaMoS radar system.