Professor Aidan Byrne commenced as the Provost and Senior Vice-President of The University of Queensland on 4 October 2016.

Prior to this appointment Professor Byrne was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Australian Research Council (2012-2016), a position in which he delivered increased knowledge and innovation through managing funding schemes, measuring research excellence and providing policy advice to Government.

Before that, he was Dean of Science and Director of the Australian National University (ANU) College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (2008-2012). He was also Head of the ANU Department of Physics (2003-2007).

Professor Byrne completed a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science (First Class Hons) in physics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and has a PhD in nuclear physics from ANU. He was a National Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne (1985-1986) and a von Humboldt fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany (1986-1989). In 1991 Professor Byrne returned to ANU as a Research Fellow.

His research interests involve the use of gamma-rays as probes to determine the structure of heavy nuclei, and the examination of the atomic level structure of materials (especially semiconductors). He has published more than 200 papers.

In 2012 Professor Byrne was awarded the ANU Peter Baume Award for eminent achievement and merit of the highest order.

Professor Byrne is a member of the MBIE Science Board (New Zealand) and the National Research Foundational Scientific Advisory Board (Singapore). He is also a fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics.

He was previously a member of the National Science, Technology and Research Committee, Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC), Defence Intelligence Organisation Scientific Advisory Group (2007-2008), the ARCom Expert Advisory Group and a member of the Australian Academy of Science Committee for Physics (2005).