Professor Brian P. Schmidt AC FAA FRS

The Vice-Chancellor and President is the leader and chief executive officer of ANU.

The Vice-Chancellor provides executive leadership to the University and takes overall responsibility for delivering the ANU Strategy. He chairs key management committees including the University Senior Management Group and the ANU Executive, and is also a member of the ANU governing body, the Council. The Vice-Chancellor is the University's primary representative to government and wider society, and to national and international organisations.

Professor Brian P. Schmidt was appointed the 12th Vice-Chancellor of ANU in January 2016.

Professor Schmidt is one of Australia's most eminent scientists. Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, alongside many other academic awards and distinctions,  Professor Schmidt spent most of his academic career as an astrophysicist at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics before becoming Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Schmidt makes a significant contribution to public debate through the media, and via his membership of bodies including the Prime Minister's National Science and Technology Council.

Professor Schmidt received undergraduate degrees in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Arizona in 1989, and completed his Astronomy Master's degree (1992) and PhD (1993) at Harvard University. Under his leadership, in 1998, the High-Z Supernova Search team made the startling discovery that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States Academy of Science, and the Royal Society, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.