Emeritus Professor Mike Calford is one of Australia’s most experienced and outstanding university leaders with over 15 years in senior leadership roles in Australian Universities. In his most recent appointment as Provost of the Australian National University (ANU), Mike was responsible for driving delivery of the ANU Strategic Plan, including reforming student admissions and budget processes. ANU’s research division, including the commercialisation auspices of ANU, also reported to him through the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) and the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation).
Mike also served as Provost of the University of Tasmania for four years where he had the lead role in winning government funding for a campus relocation project in Launceston and Burnie. He also had success in substantially increasing the number of international students studying in Tasmania.
Previously, as Pro/Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Newcastle he oversaw a doubling of the research income. The university’s commercialisation company Newcastle Innovation (NI) was part of Mike’s portfolio. NI had many commercial successes during Mike’s five years on the Board.
In addition to his career in university leadership, Mike has been a leading researcher in the field of neuroscience and held research and teaching roles at the Universities of Queensland and Melbourne, as well as at ANU. His research led to him to work overseas at the University of Oxford, the University of California, Irvine and The City University of New York. He was a joint chief investigator of an ARC Centre of Excellence and of a NHMRC Program.
Mike has been Institute Director of two medical research institutes: the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute and the Hunter Medical Research Institute.