Professor Alastair McEwan

Organisation

University of Queensland 

Job Title

Pro Vice Chancellor (Research)

Biography 

Professor Alastair (Al) McEwan is Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Queensland, Australia. Hailing from County Durham he holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham and held fellowships at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Oxford, and an academic position at the University of East Anglia, before joining the University of Queensland in 1993. Al has held a number of academic leadership roles at UQ including Dean, UQ Graduate School (2013-21). In his role as Convenor, Australian Council of Graduate Research (2019-21), he was actively engaged in promoting research training across Australia and continues to take a strong interest in development of early career researchers.  As PVC (Research) Al is responsible for enhancement of the research environment at the University of Queensland through the provision of research ethics and integrity support, researcher development programs and research IT systems. His office also contributes to research strategy, policy and performance analysis, and research development, working across with Research & Innovation portfolio

Alastair’s current research interests are in the role of transition metal ions and redox processes in pathogen-host cell interactions and he has made notable contributions to the understanding of the importance of zinc homeostasis in bacterial pathogenesis and the development of metal-based antimicrobials.