Professor Clements will join Queen’s from the University of Plymouth, where he is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation. In that role, he has chaired the University Research and Innovation; Research Ethics and Integrity; and Intellectual Property and Commercialisation Committees.

A world-renowned expert in the control and elimination of infectious diseases, he has held senior academic leadership positions in higher education and health-service settings, including Pro Vice-Chancellor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Western Australia.

He was also Director of the Research School of Population Health and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.

A strong supporter of interdisciplinary research, he completed a Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree from the University of Sydney before undertaking a PhD at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. He then began his research career into parasitic, viral and bacterial diseases, particularly tropical illnesses, at Imperial College London.

President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s, Professor Sir Ian Greer welcomed the appointment, saying: "Professor Clements is a world-renowned thought leader and brings with him a wealth of expertise and experience. He is a great champion of the ability of scientific research to have positive impact on society and to help meet some of the challenges facing our world.

"I am delighted that he will join our University community in this important leadership role and look forward to working closely with him."

The role of PVC for Research and Enterprise has been developed to lead the University’s research community for maximum, positive effect on society. Queen’s ambition for 2030 is to further strengthen its high-quality research position, working with industry, business, policy-makers and other stakeholders to catalyse translational research and innovation, in order to address local and global challenges.