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).[1]
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.
Young returned to Australia in 1984 and took up a teaching and research role at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra (University of NSW), where he remained until 1998. During this period, he rose through the academic ranks to become a full Professor in 1994 and Rector of the institution in 1998. At this time, Young’s research focused on the development of global numerical wave models, the development of nonlinear wave processes, shallow water waves and tropical cyclone wave models. His work on spectral wave models underpinned the development of today’s global models such as WaveWatch. His field research at Lake George near Canberra pioneered understanding of the growth of waves in finite depth conditions and has become a standard approach for engineering design in such situations.
In 1999 he was appointed to the role of Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Adelaide and subsequently became Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) in 2001. In 2003 he became the 2nd Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, where he served until 2011 when he became the 11th Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University in Canberra. In 2016 he returned in Melbourne to take up the position of Kernot Professor of Engineer at the University of Melbourne.
Following 2010, Young's research has focused on the role of ocean wind and waves in climate and climate change. This work has largely been achieved by building long-term databases of satellite observations of the ocean from altimeter, radiometer and scatterometer instruments. A series of publications in this field have highlighted changes in global wind speed and wave height climates over the past 30 years and pioneered this field of research.
Administrative posts
Young’s term as Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne was marked by a transformation of the university from a largely teaching institution to one with high quality focused research activities. This sparked a remarkable rise in the university’s place in international rankings, entering the top 500 universities in the world in 2010.
Young also transformed the Hawthorn campus of Swinburne through a multi-year capital development. He led a major redirection of Swinburne’s education programs with the creation of Swinburne Online in 2011. Swinburne Online is an online services company, established through a joint venture partnership with Seek Ltd. The company has been a remarkable success story. It was capitalised at A$10M when established in 2011. In 2017, Seek Ltd. increased its ownership in the company, valuing it at A$400M, a 40 times increase in value over 6 years.