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CEO, University of Wollongong, Dubai

Professor Rob Whelan

Professor Rob Whelan joined the University in 1982 as a lecturer in Biology, having completed a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences at the Flinders University of South Australia (1970-'73), a PhD in Ecology at the University of Western Australia (1974-'78), and postdoctoral work at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, Wales (1978-'79) and the University of Florida, USA (1980-'81). In 1989, he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Fellowship to work in the United States on the ecological effects of bushfires.

Professor Whelan was the Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Wollongong from 1993 to 2000 and foundation director of the Institute for Conservation Biology at the University.

Rob has a large research group focussing on two main research programs - fire ecology and conservation biology. In each of these areas, he has been funded the Australian Research Council and other agencies. He has worked in these research areas in eastern and western Australia, North America, the UK and Brazil.

In 1995, he published a research monograph "The Ecology of Fire" (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge), reviewing the ecological effects of fire in ecosystems across the world. He is the author of over 70 scientific articles on fire ecology, pollination biology and conservation biology.

Rob was a Council member of the Ecological Society of Australia and editor of its journal (The Australian Journal of Ecology) from 1984-'89, and Vice President of the Society from 1996-'99. He has had several responsibilities for the Australian Research Council: a panel member of the Research Training and Careers Committee (1995-'97), member of the steering committee for the Discipline Review of the Biological Sciences (1997-'98), and a member of the Biological Sciences and Biotechnology Expert Advisory Committee (2001-02).

He has served on a number of state and federal government advisory committees including the NSW Govt. Forest Advisory Council (1996-2000), the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council (1996-2004; Chair in 2003-04), and the Council of Australian Governments' Bushfire Inquiry (2003-04).

Professor  Whelan, has been appointed President of the University of Wollongong in Dubai for an initial term of 3 years from August 2008.