Aidan Byrne

Professor Aidan Byrne is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Australian Research Council. He was appointed in July 2012. Professor Byrne is a welcomed force at the ARC to help deliver its key priorities and deliverables. Previously the Dean of Science and the Director of the Australian National University (ANU) College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Byrne brings with him a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise particularly in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering. Professor Byrne completed a BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Auckland before commencing a PhD degree at the ANU in 1981. Following the completion of his degree at the Department of Nuclear Physics he held positions with the University of Melbourne and spent over two years in Bonn, Germany as a von Humboldt fellow. He returned to the ANU in 1989 as a Research Fellow and in 1991 commenced a joint appointment between the Department of Physics, in the Faculty of Science and the Department of Nuclear Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering. He was Head of the Department of Physics from 2003 to 2007. His research interests involve the use of gamma-rays as probes to determine the structure of heavy nuclei and the examination of the atomic level structure of materials (especially semiconductors). He has published over 200 papers.