Amit Chakma

Professor Amit Chakma became the vice chancellor of the University of Western Australia in July 2020. Previously he served as president of the University of Western Ontario from 2009 to 2019.

Prof Chakma was born in 1959 in Bangladesh, where he completed his school education. He received a scholarship from the Algerian government to study engineering and in 1982 graduated at the top of his class. That was followed by a move to Canada, where he earned a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of British Columbia.

He held teaching and leadership roles at several Canadian universities and became a policy adviser to the Canadian government. Prof Chakma was named in Canada's Top 40 Under 40 list.