Professor Alan Rowan became Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland in 2016. He oversees a team of 450 researchers and professional staff in the translation of research at the interface of Nanotechnology and Biology.  Professor Rowan, is currently an ARC Laureate Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, and board member of: The UQ Confucius Institute; The Dow Centre for Sustainability; and of UQ Senior Management group.

Professor Rowan is a world renowned physical organic chemist a strong advocate for excellence in fundamental science with the aim to solve societies’ problems. He has a h-index of 68, more than 320 publications, cited more than 18,000 times, 18 of which are in Science, Nature or the Nature family. 

In the last three years he has been awarded 9 patents in the area of nanomedicine, and nanomaterials and five companies have been started Encapson 2009, NovioTech 2011, NovioSense 2012 and Secmatix 2014, and NovioCell in 2016, all based upon the initial research conducted in the Rowan group.