University of Waterloo Appoints its sixth president

Effective March 11, 2011, Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur was officially announced as the University of Waterloo’s sixth president.

Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur joined the University in 2009 as vice president, academic and provost. He recently held the position of interim president for the past 5 and a half months, and will continue as president until the end of 2017.

He will spearhead the university’s Sixth Decade Plan, Pursuing Global Excellence and Seizing Opportunities for Canada, which places emphasis on academic excellence, teaching and research.

We can expect that during his tenure as President, that there will be several initiatives that revolve around the students, with two of the new initiatives being a new student success office and a students transitions program.

Dr. Hamdullahpur first joined the University as vice president (academic) and provost on September 1, 2009. He then replaced David Johnston as the interim president on October 1, 2010. Prior to his arrival at UW, Dr Hamdullahpur spent 6 years as Carleton University’s vice president (research and international) then as interim vice president (academic) and provost for three years thereafter. Prior to his stay at Carleton, he served as both a faculty member and an administrator at Dalhousie.

Fittingly enough, Dr Hamdullahpur comes from an engineering background, having acquired his degree in Mechanical Engineering at Technical University of Istanbul in Turkey, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. His research interests include energy conversion, thermo-fluids and biomass gasification and combustion.

His published history is as distinguished, as Dr. Hamdullahpur has published more than 160 scientific and technical articles.

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