IARU Presidents

Each IARU partner is represented by the head of the institution. Presidents meet annually to discuss specific topics of interest related to the higher education trends.

IARU Chair

The IARU Chair is elected from among the IARU Presidents for a period of 2 years. The current Chair of IARU is Professor Mosa Moshabela, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town.  

Past IARU Chairpersons: Dr Anthony Freeling, 2022-2023 (University of Cambridge); Professor Stephen J. Toope, 2021-2022 (University of Cambridge); Dr Makoto Gonokami, 2018-21 (University of Tokyo); Chancellor Carol Christ, 2017-18 (University of California, Berkeley); Professor Nicholas Dirks, 2017 (University of California, Berkeley); Professor Ralf Hemmingsen, 2015-16 (University of Copenhagen); Professor Ralph Eichler, 2013-14 (ETH Zurich); Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, 2009-12 (National University of Singapore); Professor Ian Chubb, 2005-08 (Australian National University).

IARU Presidents

  • AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITYProf Genevieve Bell, President
  • ETH ZURICH Prof Joël Mesot, President
  • NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE Prof Tan Eng Chye, President
  • PEKING UNIVERSITYProf GONG Qihuang, President
  • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Prof Rich Lyons, President
  • UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGEProf Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor
  • UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN Prof Mosa Moshabela, Vice-Chancellor
  • UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGENProf David Dreyer Lassen, Rector
  • UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Prof Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor
  • THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYODr Teruo Fujii, President
  • YALE UNIVERSITY Prof Maurie McInnis, President

  • AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

    Prof Genevieve Bell, President

    Professor Genevieve Bell was appointed the 13th Vice-Chancellor of ANU in January 2024. Genevieve is the University’s first female Vice-Chancellor. Genevieve holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist, having spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley helping guide Intel's product development and social science and design research capabilities. She is best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development and for being an important voice in the global debates around artificial intelligence and human society.

    In 2017, Genevieve returned to Australia and established the 3A Institute at ANU, in collaboration with CSIRO's Data61, with the mission of building a new branch of engineering to take AI-enabled cyber-physical systems safely, sustainably and responsibly scale. In 2021, she became the inaugural Director of the new ANU School of Cybernetics, which builds on the foundational work of the 3A Institute and seeks to establish cybernetics as an important tool for navigating major societal transformations, through capability building, policy development and safe, sustainable and responsible approaches to new systems.

    In addition to her roles at the ANU and Intel, Genevieve was also a Non-Executive Director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Board (January 2019-October 2023) and is currently a Member of the Prime Minister's National Science and Technology Council, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH), Florence Violet McKenzie Chair, SRI International Engelbart Distinguished Fellow, member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) AI Council and an Officer of the Order of Australia.

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  • ETH ZURICH

    Prof Joël Mesot, President

    Professor Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, took up his new responsibility on 1 January 2019. Prior to his appointment, he served for more than 10 years as the Director of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the largest publicly funded research institute in Switzerland. In addition, Mesot has been a full professor in physics, both at ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne. Since July 2010, he has also served as a member of the ETH Board.

    Professor Mesot studied physics at ETH Zurich and earned his doctoral degree in the field of solid state physics using neutron scattering, both at ETH and the Institute Laue-Langevin (France). Following his first position at the PSI, he spent several years at the Argonne National Laboratory in the USA, where he specialized in synchrotron techniques. In 1999, he returned to Switzerland to head the ETH and PSI’s joint laboratory for neutron scattering.

    For his scientific achievements, Professor Mesot has received several awards, among which the Swiss Physical Society’s IBM Award in 1995 and ETH Zurich’s Latsis Prize for excellence in research in 2002. He is member of several national and international advisory boards, among them the Swiss Innovation Park’s Foundation Board and the Senate of the Helmholtz Association, Germany.

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  • NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

    Prof Tan Eng Chye, President

    Professor Tan Eng Chye is the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) 5th President and he will be the 23rd leader to head Singapore’s oldest higher education institution, which traces its roots to a modest medical school founded in 1905.

    Professor Tan obtained his Bachelor in Mathematics at NUS and his PhD at Yale University. He joined NUS as a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics in 1985. Professor Tan's research interests are in the Representation Theory of Lie Groups and Lie Algebras, and Invariant Theory and Algebraic Combinatorics.

    Professor Tan was a pioneer architect of the current academic system in NUS, and has seeded many initiatives such as the Special Programme in Science, University Scholars Programme, University Town Residential College Programme, Grade-free Scheme, Technology-enhanced Education, etc.

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  • PEKING UNIVERSITY

    Prof GONG Qihuang, President

    Professor Gong Qihuang serves as President of Peking University, the Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Peking University. He is also the Dean of the Graduate School of Peking University. He is the Cheung Kong Professor of Physics and Boya Chair Professor of Peking University, as well as the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and fellow of the World Academy of Sciences.

    He served as Vice Dean of the School of Physics, Deputy Director of the Development and Planning Department, Executive Vice Dean of the Graduate School, Provost, Vice President, and Executive Vice President of Peking University.

    He served as the director of the State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructures and Mesoscopic Physics at Peking University (April 2001–March 2017), and he is the Director of the Academic Committee (March 2017 - Present). He was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK (2007), the Optical Society of America (2010) and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (2018), a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2013) and a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (2018).

    Professor Gong is Vice President of the International Commission for Optics, Standing Committee member of the China Association for Science and Technology and Vice Chair of the Beijing Association for Science and Technology. He also serves as the President of Chinese Optical Society, Vice President of Chinese Physical Society and Vice President of the Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education.

  • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

    Prof Rich Lyons, President

    Professor Rich Lyons began his term as the 12th chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), on 1 July 2024, as the first undergraduate alumnus to serve as chancellor, receiving his BS degree from UC Berkeley in 1982. He returned to UC Berkeley in 1993, joining the faculty after earning his PhD in economics from MIT and following six years on the faculty at Columbia University. Professor Lyons’ pioneering work as a scholar focuses on how information within a society is aggregated and expressed in price signals, which in turn helps societies to make better decisions. Most of that work focuses on international exchange rates, ie., the prices of all of one country’s goods and services relative to another. His book,The Microstructure Approach to Exchange Rates, was instrumental in defining the field.

    Professor Lyons is also known for culture leadership – anchoring institutions on distinctive values thathelp create a cohesive community with a shared understanding of, and support for, the mission. He isa powerful advocate for public higher education that is both accessible and excellent, reflected in his favoured phrase that, “It is stunning – singular even – what UC Berkeley is able to achieve at the scale that it achieves it.” Culture leadership in his view also connects to the “why” of great education, including not just knowledge and thinking tools, but also exposure to opportunities, which he views asfundamental to personal development. You can’t be what you can’t see – Berkeley is an engine forpeople to see in themselves what they could not see, imbued with a sense of stewardship for thegreater good that is a signature for this public university.

    Prior to serving as chancellor, Professor Lyons served as both the dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas Schoolof Business and, over the most recent 4 years, led the development and expansion of innovation and entrepreneurship campus-wide. He did not realise how much he would enjoy fundraising when he first took the dean role. Partnering with others to fund the future of the institution that has had more impact on his life than any other has been enjoyable and meaningful. Overseeing innovation and entrepreneurship at a university that is not just great at creating enterprises in the civic and publicsectors, but is in fact number one in the world for creating venture-funded startups, has helped sharpen a lens on how UC Berkeley can participate more in all the value, economic and otherwise,that it creates, and do so in a way fully consistent with advancing its core mission and distinctive values.

    Professor Lyons is an ardent supporter of the student experience, which comes in part from his own experience of the transformative effect of a UC Berkeley education. In 1998 he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley’s highest teaching award, which recognises “sustained excellence in teaching that incites intellectual curiosity in students, inspires colleagues, and makes students aware of significant relationships between the academy and the world at large.” Asked at a meeting among colleagues what his “six-word memoir is,” he responded with “long-term love affair with ideas, learning.” He often provokes people with the question, “just imagine where UC Berkeley would be without the momentous contributions to academic excellence and accessibility made possible by our alumni.” As an alumnus himself, and contributor since shortly after leaving UC Berkeley in the 1980s, Professor Lyons delights in mixing it up with alumni and working together tosteward this remarkable university, truly one of society’s most important, and distinctive, assets.

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  • UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

    Prof Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor

    Professor Deborah Prentice became the University of Cambridge’s 347th Vice-Chancellor on 1 July 2023. An eminent psychologist, Professor Prentice carried out her academic and administrative career at Princeton University, which she first joined in 1988. She rose through the academic ranks and took on administrative responsibilities of increasing scope, chairing the Department of Psychology for 12 years, serving as Dean of Faculty for three years, and then serving six years as Provost, with primary responsibility for all academic, budgetary, and long-term planning issues. Her academic expertise is in the study of social norms that govern human behaviour – particularly the impact and development of unwritten rules and conventions, and how people respond to breaches of those rules. She has edited three academic volumes and published more than 50 articles and chapters, and she has specialised in the study of domestic violence, alcohol abuse and gender stereotypes.

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  • UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

    Prof Mosa Moshabela, Vice-Chancellor

    Professor Mosa Moshabela is the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Cape Town (UCT). Previously he was a professor of public health and deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he was responsible for a large university-wide portfolio of research management, development, ethics & integrity,capacity-building, innovation, entrepreneurship,technology transfer and commercialisation.

    An esteemed academic and clinician scientist, member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), he was awarded the Public Health Innovation and Lifetime Achievement(PHILA) Annual Award (2022) by the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) for his contribution to public health in South Africa, and a Ministerial Special Covid-19 Award (2020 - 2021) for Covid-19 Science Communication and Public Engagement.

    Professor Moshabela is the chairperson of the board at the National Research Foundation (NRF) and health commissioner to the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, as one of the seven multi-sector commissioners on the Premier's Provincial Planning Commission. He is a former member of the board at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), and former chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health in the ASSAf. Primarily, Professor Moshabela’s contribution to health research has been in the improvement of access and quality in healthcare to combat infectious diseases, particularly in relation to HIV and TB, and in the areas of health systems, services and policy research.

    Professor Moshabela has held a number of scientific grants for his research, mainly from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom (MRC-UK) and NRF in South Africa. Professor Moshabela also received funding from the SAMRC, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in the UK, International Development Research Centre(IDRC) of Canada, and more recently, the US Government, Swiss Government, German Government and the European Union. Professor Moshabela’s research is focused on implementation science of health innovations, which cuts across multiple disciplines, and involves the design, implementation and evaluation of complex interventions in healthcare services and programs, and seeks to improve access, quality, equity and impact in healthcare, for resource-poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Currently, he leads the Quality Health Systems and Transformation (QuEST) Center in South Africa, a collaboration with the TH Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA, and he is a faculty member in HIV, Infectious Disease and Global Health Research Institute (HIGH IRI) at the University of Washington in St Louis, USA. Globally, he is a member of the international advisory board for the Lancet Healthy Longevity, Lancet commission on synergies between Health Promotion, Universal Healthcare Access and Global Health Security, and the commission of the US National Academies for Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) on the Global Roadmap to Healthy Longevity.

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  • UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

    Prof David Dreyer Lassen, Rector

    David Dreyer Lassen has been the rector of the University of Copenhagen (KU) since March 1, 2025, after serving as prorector for research since 2021. He established – together with others – the interdisciplinary research center Center for Social Data Science (SODAS) and served as its first director from 2016-20. Concurrently, he was a member and chairman of the Research Council for Society and Business and later chairman of the board of the Independent Research Fund Denmark from 2019-20. He has been a member of the Danish Competition Council and is now, among other things, vice-chairman of the board of Statistics Denmark, chairman of the Advisory Board of videnskab.dk, and chairman of the government's task force for strengthened knowledge and technology transfer from 2025.

    His primary research areas are social data science, public economics, and political economy, most recently with a particular focus on predicting social and economic life trajectories using administrative data and network data. He has taught and supervised at all levels at the university for more than 25 years, served on the study board for the economics program, and was among the initiators of the master's program in social data science. He has been the principal investigator on research grants from, among others, the European Research Council (ERC), the Independent Research Fund Denmark, and the Villum Foundation, and co-principal investigator on grants from, among others, the Danish National Research Foundation and ERC.

    As rector, David Dreyer Lassen has a strong focus on maintaining and further developing the University of Copenhagen's position as a leading international research university. Based on KU's 2030 strategy, which he himself helped to formulate, he emphasizes ensuring the best possible conditions for education at the highest international level and internationally excellent curiosity-driven research in all six scientific main areas of the university. At the same time, he wishes to strengthen the university's interaction with society, with a particular focus on innovation, impact, and lifelong learning. He emphasizes developing the university in broad collaborations with the state system, public and private foundations, other educational and research actors at home and abroad, and – not least – the university's staff and students.

    David Dreyer Lassen holds a master's degree in economics (1998), a Ph.D. in economics (2002), and has been a professor of economics (since 2012) at the University of Copenhagen.

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  • UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

    Prof Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor

    Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey CBE FMedSci. led Merton College from 2019-22 and is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, a department she led for several years. She was tenured in 2001 to the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics with Tutorial Fellowship in Medicine at Christ Church. Additionally, she held the Nuffield Chair in Anaesthetic Sciences for 12 years with a Fellowship at Pembroke College.

    She is also President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). Professor Tracey's research on the neuroscience of pain has contributed to a better understanding of pain perception and its relief in the human brain. She has also used neuroimaging to better understand anaesthesia-induced altered states of consciousness. Irene has served and continues to serve academia through her election to the Councils of the International Association for the Study of Pain, British Neuroscience Association, and Medical Research Council. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Medical Research by Her Majesty The Queen in 2022. Professor Tracey completed her undergraduate degree and doctorate at Merton College, Oxford, in biochemistry; her doctoral work focused on early use of magnetic resonance imaging methods to study disease mechanisms.

    Professor Tracey held a postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School, working at the Martinos Centre for Biomedical Imaging, before returning to Oxford in 1997, when she became a founding member and then Director for ten years of the world-leading institution now known as the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. She has won many academic and international prizes throughout her career. Professor Tracey is married to Professor Myles Allen and they have three children.

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  • THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

    Dr Teruo Fujii, President

    Dr Teruo Fujii became the 31th President of the University of Tokyo on April 1, 2021, with a six-year term. He was previously Executive Vice President in charge of finance and external relations for the university. He also served as Director General of Institute of Industrial Sciences (IIS) of the university from 2015 to 2018. He received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Tokyo (1993) and after joining RIKEN Institute became an associate professor (1999) and professor (2007) of IIS.

    Dr Fujii was also an advisor to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) from 2005 to 2008 and Co-director of LIMMS-CNRS/IIS, a joint research lab between CNRS, France, and IIS, from 2007 to 2014. He served as the President of Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS) and organized its MicroTAS conference held in Okinawa in 2012.

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  • YALE UNIVERSITY

    Prof Maurie McInnis, President

    President Maurie McInnis is the 24th president of Yale University, a role she assumed on 1 July 2024, and she is a professor in the Department of the History of Art. She has spent three decades in higher education, holding a range of teaching, research, and leadership positions at several iconic universities.

    President McInnis most recently served as the sixth president of Stony Brook University, an internationally recognised research institution and a flagship university in the State of New York. As chief executive, President McInnis also oversaw Stony Brook Medicine, Long Island’s premier academic medical centre, which encompasses five health sciences schools, four hospitals, and 200 community-based healthcare settings.She was a key player in furthering economic development on Long Island and in Stony Brook’s role as part of the management team of nearby Brookhaven National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy facility.

    She is also the inaugural chair of the Board of the New York Climate Exchange. Her leadership atStony Brook University was transformative, marked by a $500 million gift from the Simons Foundation—the largest-ever unrestricted endowment gift made to a U.S. institution of higher education. Whileat Stony Brook, President McInnis also accelerated the university’s research engine, including investments in faculty support, seed grants, and program support, resulting in a 20% increase in sponsored research. Additionally, under President McInnis’ leadership, Stony Brook was recognised as a leader in socioeconomic mobility, serving a highly diverse student population that is nearly 40% Pell-eligible and about 35% first generation. President McInnis previously served as the provost and executive vice president of the University of Texas at Austin.

    As the chief academic officer, she led strategic planning for the university’s academic mission. Her initiatives focused onexpanding access to higher education for Texas families and investing in student and faculty support programs. Her leadership was instrumental in enhancing the university’s academic reputation and fostering a culture of innovation and excellence. President McInnis is also a distinguished scholar of the politics of art and slavery in the American South, and has contributed significantly to her field as a cultural historian. President McInnis’s academic career began as a graduate student at Yale in the Department of the History of Art.

    As a fourth-generation educator, President McInnis is deeply committed to the work of educatorsand how education has the power to transform lives, families, and society for the better. After completing her graduate studies, President McInnis served as a faculty member at James Madison University. Here, she honed her teaching skills and developed a deep understanding of the needs and aspirations of students. Her commitment to student success and academic excellence was adefining feature of her teaching career.

    President McInnis then returned to her alma mater, the University of Virginia, where she held various leadership roles, including associate dean for undergraduate academic programs and vice provost for academic affairs. Her tenure at the university was marked by her efforts to strengthen academic connections and develop innovative educational programs. She played a pivotal role in fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and promoting academic excellence. In addition to her academic and administrative roles, President McInnis has served on various boards and commissions, including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Commission on Economic and Community Engagement and the Association of American Universities.

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