Professor Annabelle Duncan was the Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of the University of New England (UNE) until July 2019. She joined UNE in September 2010, initially as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and then as Deputy Vice-Chancellor before being appointed as Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer in 2014. Professor Duncan currently chairs the NSW Physical Sciences Fund, and is on the board of the Regional Australia Institute.
Prior to joining UNE, Professor Duncan spent 16 years at CSIRO, which included 6 years as Chief of the Division of Molecular Science. After leaving CSIRO in 2005, she worked as the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer at the Bio21 Institute at Melbourne University, then as the Executive Director of Science Collaboration and Transition in the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience, a joint venture between La Trobe University and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.
For over a decade, Professor Duncan acted as an advisor to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on biological weapons control, representing Australia at international arms control meetings and acting as a biological weapons inspector with the United Nations in Iraq.
Professor Duncan was awarded a Public Service Medal in 1996, and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Murdoch University in 2005 for her work in arms control. In 2018 she was appointed as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering for her work as both an educational leader and educator in science and technology.
[September 2019]